SAM LONG received his degree in engineering from Bath University. As TEAM's Director of Research, he is committed to identifying the people who are excluded from the property market. Sam says: "I was shocked to discover that people with reasonable incomes - up to £45,000 a year - are not able to buy homes being built in London. One of TEAM's missions is to include these households in our developments."

Q  Is it true that people on reasonably good incomes are excluded from the housing market?

Sam:  When I began to investigate people's choices, I was shocked to discover that households with incomes ranging from £25,000 to £45,000 a year fell through the housing net. They do not qualify for help in the social housing sector, but nor can they afford the price of a new property. One-third of London households fall into this category. They are forced to share and rent. Sharing is fine when you are single and footloose in the great metropolis - but it's not so good for people who want to marry and settle down with a family. I certainly wouldn't want to get married if I had to share with a mate.

Q Why does this matter to TEAM?

Sam:  As a new company, we want to make our homes accessible to the widest possible number of people. This makes commercial sense. We are determined to achieve efficiencies that will enable us to reduce our prices to levels that attract people from all the income bands. One of our targets is to build homes that are within the financial reach of those in the median earnings band - on £28,000 a year. For example, we don't want to build homes that our own employees cannot afford. So one test of our success is that our properties ought to be affordable to people who work for us building TEAM homes.
 
Q   How can TEAM help first-time buyers?

Sam:  We are constructing a volume-based business. That means we have to reach out to the largest possible number of households. We are developing a strategy that will enable us to share some of our profits with buyers who need help in taking their first step on the property ladder. This will mean locking up some of our profits out of the reach of our shareholders. But we take the view that spending those profits on holidays in Barbados is a short-term approach to building a business. If we can use some of our profits to help people who do not qualify for state subsidies, we will be building the sustainable communities that attract people.
 
Q So TEAM has a mission beyond the profit motive?

Sam:  Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't say we're being hugely altruistic. As a business, we want to bring as many more customers to our doors as possible. Being more efficient is good business practice - we create a virtuous circle, in which paring down our costs means we can hold down our prices, which attracts more customers.

But we cannot escape the social consequences of the housing market. Our research has highlighted how housing has an impact
on people's health and therefore the wealth of the nation. Poor housing leads to under-achievement in education, which affects employment prospects.

Then think about the way in which the accommodation-related stresses lead to crime. And yes, we do want to make a difference at this social level. But that ambition need not be at odds with a hard-headed commercial approach.

Q  But if you succeed, won't this mean building on open spaces and green fields?

Sam:  It's one of the myths in the construction industry that there isn't enough land around on which to build decent homes for everyone - or that to do so would be to gobble up greenfield sites. There's enough derelict and vacant land and buildings around on which we could build another 980,000 dwellings - that's nearly a million new homes. The sites are not green fields, and they are all designated as suitable for development. Building companies like to sit on such sites, watching the price going up. We believe that land should be taken out of quarantine and put to use. Increasing the supply is one sure way of cooling the rise in prices, which has got to be good for everyone.

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