Building Better: Reflections from the Kent Housing Group Conference 2025

Written by Elouise Mitchell (LEP Associate & Senior Planning Consultant)

LEP was proud to sponsor this year’s Kent Housing Group Conference, held on Thursday 19 June 2025.

Attending alongside my colleague, Architecture and Masterplanning Partner Liz Gibney, I left the day feeling both challenged and inspired. It was a powerful reminder of the critical role we all play in shaping the future of housing across Kent and Medway.

The conference brought together housing professionals, local authority leaders, developers, and infrastructure specialists around a shared agenda: responding collectively to the housing challenges our region is facing. The programme was structured around the themes of the emerging Kent and Medway Housing Strategy: accelerating housing delivery, putting infrastructure first, affordability, safer homes, and health and wellbeing.

Liz joined a collaborative panel session exploring the benefits of delivering infrastructure first, a topic that resonated strongly throughout the day. A key theme was that infrastructure isn’t a nice-to-have or an afterthought. It’s essential to unlocking the homes and communities we need. When we put schools, roads, health services and active travel networks at the heart of our planning, we accelerate delivery, build resilience, and create places people genuinely want to live.

But as the statistics shared by KHG Chair Brian Horton reminded us, the need for action is urgent:

• 24% fewer homes delivered than needed
• Only 33% of the affordable homes required have been built
• 3,339 children living in temporary accommodation across the region

These figures speak volumes. They are not abstract numbers, but real people and real children, affected by the failure to deliver the right homes in the right places. The housing crisis is no longer looming; it is here, and it’s happening in Kent.

Yet, the tone of the day wasn’t defeatist. Quite the opposite. We heard inspiring examples of developers achieving 100% EPC A-rated homes, joint ventures delivering 50% affordable housing schemes, and proactive infrastructure projects transforming sites before a single home is built. The message was clear: there are solutions, and many are already being piloted successfully across the county.

We were also reminded that success isn’t just about numbers either, it’s also about people. Good community engagement, considered placemaking, and strong partnerships are critical if we are to build the types of homes people need and want. Homes that contribute positively to wellbeing and offer genuine choice across all life stages and income levels.

The newly launched Kent and Medway Housing Strategy 2025–2030, Build Better Homes: Growth, Wellbeing and Choice, sets out a bold and necessary vision. As planners, designers and placemakers, we have a responsibility to translate that vision into reality, through thoughtful schemes, early infrastructure delivery, creative partnerships, and a willingness to challenge the status quo.

At LEP, we are committed to being part of the solution. The work we do matters, and this conference reinforced why. It’s a privilege to collaborate with clients and communities across the region to create better homes, stronger neighbourhoods, and sustainable growth.

Let’s keep building better. Together.

View the full Kent and Medway Housing Strategy 2025–2030 here.