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“Councils want to turn the tide of rising homelessness and ensure no one has to sleep rough on our streets, an ambition which Lord Kerslake admirably strived for."

​​​​​​​Taxpayers will continue to subsidise planning services by almost £5 million a week until the Government finalises measures to increase fees to cover the cost of processing applications, councils warn today.

Councils could face an extra bill of £18 million to deal with new government housing standards, as revealed by research undertaken by the LGA. 

Hotels have already begun to close to Afghan households across the country and - as we feared - councils are already seeing families presenting to them as homeless as a result.

Further expanding permitted development rights risks creating poor quality residential environments that negatively impact people’s health and wellbeing.

“Councils are committed to working with government and developers to build the housing the country needs, with land for more than 2.6 million homes allocated in Local Plans and nine in 10 planning applications being approved."

Every area in England should be handed a new local housing deal by 2025 to spark a “generational step-change” in council housebuilding.

Councils are very concerned by the findings of this report. It is not right that a child’s ability to do well at school is potentially jeopardised by the conditions of the building in which they study.

“The removal of ‘no fault’ evictions is a significant step towards tackling our national homelessness crisis."

Plans to increase planning fees by 35 per cent will not be enough to prevent a significant national shortfall or solve capacity issues in the sector.