Urgent action is needed to ensure more housing is built to meet growing demand - LGA response to Government announcement on planning reforms

Responding to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government's announcement of reforms to the housing planning system, Cllr Claire Holland, Housing spokesperson for the Local Government Association said: 

“Homelessness and the lack of affordable housing is one of the most pressing issues facing councils. Urgent action is needed to ensure more housing is built to meet growing demand. 

“Today the Government has laid out some positive first steps on affordable housing. Consultation on the Right to Buy scheme is positive news for councils who have seen their stock significantly diminish under the scheme and we look forward to working with government on its ongoing review. Local government stands ready to work with national government on their detailed delivery plans to ensure practical solutions to these long-standing problems are found. 

“While national government can provide useful guidance, it is local councils and communities who know their areas best, so changes to national planning policy should be suitably flexible to allow authorities to make judgement decisions on managing competing demands for uses in their local areas. We will look carefully at the changes proposed to planning policy and housing targets.

“In order to deliver more housing, councils need the proper levers to deliver proposals that genuinely support a faster build-out of schemes. This includes urgently introducing a ‘stalled sites’ council tax premium, as well as a streamlined compulsory purchase process to acquire stalled sites or sites where developers do not build out to agreed rates. Action is also needed to ensure viability assessments are fair.”