Housing White Paper

This briefing summarises the main announcements of relevance to local government and sets out the Local Government Association’s (LGA) initial response.

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Summary

Fixing our broken housing market includes some encouraging proposals that reflect the recommendations in the LGA Housing Commission report, such as removing the starter homes requirement and increasing funding for planning departments.  Importantly, it emphasises building the right homes in the right places to meet our wider ambitions for communities. 

However, local government's ambition is much greater than the White Paper, which lacks substantive measures to support councils in enabling housing growth, and to build the genuinely affordable homes for those at the sharp end of the housing crisis.

The LGA will work with the Government to take forward proposals, We will continue to push for an ambitious vision that recognises local government's role in enabling additional housing, and in building the genuinely affordable homes that would resolve many of the challenges facing communities, the economy, and public services. In particular, we will continue to call for the housing borrowing cap to be lifted.