FAQs — About Key Workers
Why did Skyroom create the Key Worker Homes Fund?
Skyroom created the Key Worker Homes Fund in 2020 to accelerate the delivery of affordable, sustainable, beautiful homes for key workers, near where they work. Our ambition for the Key Worker Homes Fund to enable the delivery of 1,000 new homes in partnership with London’s Local Authorities and Housing Associations.
It is a continuation of our work which started in 2018, when we first presented the case for providing homes for key workers in the airspace above existing buildings in a white paper, Rise Up, published by UCL.
Who are key workers?
Skyroom follows the definition of key workers set by the Government: a public sector employee who is considered to provide an essential service. We are particularly focussed on providing homes for local key workers so that they can live close to where they work.
Why prioritise key workers?
The rationale for prioritising affordable, sustainable, beautiful homes for key workers is threefold:
1. It is due to their service that we have the opportunity to live as healthy, educated, safe citizens.
2. They are overworked and underpaid, causing health inequalities and economic disadvantages.
3. Their quality of life determines the standard of our public services, and the wellbeing of our communities.
There is currently no clear housing policy to support key workers. Many find themselves unable to buy homes on the open market, and at the same time not eligible for the government’s affordable homes.
Don’t key workers want pay rises?
Unions, such as the Royal College of Nursing are doing brilliant and important campaigning for fairer, higher pay for their members.
At Skyroom, we believe that homes are one solution to the key worker living-cost dilemma. Key workers typically put 60% of their income towards their housing costs:
Our research has found that making it possible for key workers to live near their work gives the equivalent of a 40% pay rise in terms of life satisfaction, improved health and career. Read more in Rise Up.
Why do they need to live near to where they work?
Key workers need to live close to where they work in order to provide essential care and services. Longer commuting times negatively affect one’s quality of life and remove economic opportunities that cities have to offer.
Research has found that 62% of key workers are looking for jobs outside of London due to the price of housing. (Unison, 2017). The percentage is more acute in some healthcare professions. Read more in Rise Up, Chapter 2.
What is the typical range of incomes for key workers?
We want to deliver homes for key workers across different income brackets. In London, in 2020, example key worker salaries occupy the range:
— Police Constables to Chief Inspectors: £26,199 — £61,725
— NHS workers: £21,892 — £87,754 (bands 4–8d)
— Teachers: £30,480 — £70,540 (M1 — Lead practitioners spine point 18)
A large proportion of key workers are partnered with another key worker. 28% of key workers with dependent children have a partner who is also a key worker. This percentage increases in the case of healthcare workers. (Institute for Fiscal Studies)
What sorts of homes can key workers in London afford?
The variety of key worker roles means that they have greatly differing incomes and financial circumstances. Housing to meet the needs of key workers needs to reflect this diversity with a suitable range of rents and prices.
Will the homes delivered through the Key Worker Homes Fund be affordable?
The tenure of the new homes will ultimately be determined by the successful applicant (the Local Authority or Housing Association). The organisations exist to provide homes accessible to people of a whole range of incomes, mostly on low incomes.
Many Housing Associations and Local Authority development companies deliver homes for private sale, too, to cross-subsidise the delivery of affordable homes. Skyroom’s approach of building upwards not outwards reduces the cost of ‘land’, making it more affordable to deliver homes for key workers in preferable locations.
As a triple bottom line initiative, the key Worker Homes Fund is awarded to projects considered the most impactful, based on a range of metrics including affordability. Applicants are required to state the intended mix of home products in the Feasibility Study, which is submitted to Commissioners for judging.
Will key worker homes be passed onto other key workers?
We work with Registered Providers of housing, people who are already in charge of managing key worker homes, in order to ensure these tenures are protected. We rely on the government and Local Authorities to help make this happen.
What are Local Authorities already doing to deliver homes for key workers?
Local Authorities already provide homes for many of the London’s key workers and continue to build new homes, despite the devastating effect that the pandemic has had on their finances, compounding the pre-existing financial strain many already faced.
Few Local Authorities prioritise homes to key workers and few boroughs have a definition for local ‘key worker’. The Key Worker Homes Fund aims to demonstrate the need and provide a solution which meets the needs of Local Authorities. We need to work together.
How does Skyroom ensure homes go to key workers?
Skyroom’s mission is to improve the lives of key workers by delivering affordable, sustainable, beautiful, homes near where they work.
The power to prioritise homes to key workers is in the hands of policymakers. Until key workers are recognised as a priority demographic, Skyroom seeks to deliver 100% of new homes to be for key workers by:
- Delivering new homes ourselves: Skyroom has a growing waiting list of key workers looking to live closer to where they work in London.
- Incentivising and advising our partners to deliver tenure types matched to key worker needs. The Key Worker Homes Fund, for example, targets organisations which already provide affordable and key worker housing, such as Local Authorities and Housing Associations.
- Lobbying local and central government to create a tenure to cater to the needs of key worker and/or reintroduce policies which prioritised key worker access to a range of home tenures.
Applications to the Key Worker Homes Fund have now closed.
Find out more about: the Key Worker Homes Fund | Skyroom | our white paper, Rise Up
