News

“This Bill will help to achieve better standards in the private rented sector through increasing the rights of tenants and enabling them to better hold landlords to account."

Councils in England spent £142 million placing homeless households in bed and breakfasts in 2019/20, compared with £26.7 million in 2010/11 - a 430 per cent increase.

The LGA said councils want to work with the Government to tackle the housing shortage and ensure new housing meets the needs of communities. As part of this, it is calling on permitted development rules to be scrapped and local communities to be allowed to have a vital say on new developments in their area.

Communities could have missed out on nearly 30,000 affordable homes in the past five years if proposed government planning reforms were in place, new analysis by the LGA reveals today.

“We urge the Government to stay the course and abolish Section 21 notices to provide renters greater security.”

The Local Government Association is launching its third year of the Housing Advisers Programme, an innovative scheme to help councils overcome housing challenges in their local areas, with bids invited from today.

The programme, which opens for bids today, boosts council capacity through the provision of independent expertise for councils undertaking specific projects to tackle the effects of the housing crisis in local communities – including on housing delivery, planning for homes, and reducing homelessness.

The Local Government Association is launching the sixth year of the Housing Advisers Programme, an innovative scheme to help councils overcome housing challenges in their local areas.

“This independent report rightly backs our long-standing concerns over the detrimental impact on local communities of rules allowing home conversions without planning permission. It provides further evidence on why it is more vital than ever that planning should remain local."

“These findings reinforce why it is essential that accessible and adaptable housing for older and disabled people is a key part of our national ambition to build new homes, and we support calls to raise the minimum accessibility standards for new housing."