黑洞社区

Trade organisations have given a cautious welcome the government鈥檚 latest planning proposals but warned that more needs to be done to speed up the delivery of desperately needed new homes.

The government announced its last week, with communities secretary Sajid Javid claiming it would 鈥渉elp local areas have an open conversation about the number of new homes needed, and make sure we build more houses in the places they are needed to provide for a growing population鈥�.

RICS Parliamentary affairs manager Lewis Johnston said that while the proposals were welcome 鈥� as they aimed to 鈥渂etter align planning assessments with the real housing requirements of local communities鈥� 鈥� he also warned that ministers needed to recognise the need to speed up housebuilding activity.

鈥淭he overriding objective of the government鈥檚 housing policy has to be getting more homes delivered on the ground. While welcome, ultimately these proposals will only be effective if they succeed in breaking the logjam around delivery.

鈥淏oth the volume and speed of housebuilding in the UK need to be increased if we are to address the chronic gap between demand and supply.

鈥淣obody can live in a planning consent, and the focus for government should be fulfilling its White Paper commitment to empower a greater range of developers to increase their supply of homes. This means providing more support for SME builders, and lifting the borrowing cap so local authorities can borrow against future revenue streams to build.鈥�

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) called on the government to 鈥榬ural proof鈥� its latest planning proposals, in order to protect rural communities across the country.

It said while it welcomed the proposals to assess housing need, it argued it was 鈥渃rucial that housing delivery is 鈥榬ural proofed鈥欌��.

CLA housing adviser Matthew O鈥機onnell said rural communities had not been able to grow organically and incrementally for many years, 鈥渁nd as a result local people are unable to afford to live in the areas they have grown up in.

鈥淎s rural landowners and local employers, CLA members would like to see greater clarity on the need for small-scale incremental development in rural communities, in addition to greater clarity on housing need.鈥�

Proposals in the Housing White Paper published earlier this year outlined that at least 10% of the sites allocated for residential development in local plans should be sites of half a hectare or less, a strategy supported by the CLA, and described by O鈥機onnell as 鈥渁 sensible step that will help rural areas grow proportionately鈥�.

Another part of the government鈥檚 proposals, an eight-week consultation for which kicked off last week, will require local councils to work together 鈥渢o plan for homes and supporting infrastructure, such as roads and utility services鈥�.

Councils would need to work with their local communities 鈥渢o take account of green belt and any other constraints, discuss with adjoining councils, and decide how many homes they can build, and where鈥�.

The Home Builders鈥� Federation said it welcomed the government鈥檚 move and the group鈥檚 planning director Andrew Whitaker added: 鈥淲e would say that the announcement is generally very positive.

鈥淭here are still a lot of details to work out about what it actually means in practice, but overall the focus on putting robust plans in place and keeping them up to date is good news for the industry.鈥�