The steep rise in the value of residential property has been partly driven by a chronic undersupply of new homes. The Housing White Paper, launched in February, seeks to tackle this housing shortage.
Its 106 pages offer no quick fix solutions, prompting criticism that it stops short of the ‘radical vision’ promised by Sajid Javid. What the White Paper lacks in terms of a headline-grabber, it seeks to make up for with a more pragmatic approach that tackles the housing crisis on multiple fronts.
Wide-ranging measures place greater responsibility on local authorities to adopt up-to-date plans that meet housing requirements, increase pressure on housebuilders to accelerate construction and provide support for a wider range of tenure.
The Housing White Paper is not a manifesto for revolution but a detailed blueprint for evolution. Here are some of the key proposals:
More power and responsibility for local authorities:
Driving greater economic productivity is one of the Government’s key aims. Providing enough homes in the right places is part of the solution and local authorities are to take more responsibility for making it happen.
Under the proposals, councils must provide up-to-date local plans based on an ‘honest assessment of the need for new homes’. There is also more support for collaboration across local authority boundaries.
Councils will be held to account through a new ‘housing delivery test’, which will highlight whether housebuilding is meeting housing requirements and from November 2018 automatically apply “the presumption in favour of sustainable development” if delivery falls below 25% of housing requirement (rising to 65% over time).
A separate consultation will look into ways local authorities can make more active use of compulsory purchase powers to promote development on stalled sites. Additional support will come from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), which will take a more proactive role on compulsory purchase.
In recognition that councils are under-resourced, there are plans to allow local authorities to increase planning fees by at least 20% and £25 million of new funding will be made available for “ambitious” authorities in areas of greatest need.