Housing White Paper – Local Government Association consultation response

The Housing White Paper presents an important shift in the government’s housing strategy on a number of fronts.

03 May 2017

Key messages

The Housing White Paper presents an important shift in the government’s housing strategy on a number of fronts and goes some way to recognising the important role that local government can play in solving our housing crisis.
Local government’s ambitions for the future of housing and its role in solving our housing crisis are much greater than the measures set out in the White Paper. In order to succeed, local government must be enabled to deliver and help deliver additional housing that is genuinely affordable, reduces homelessness, and achieves wider outcomes for their local economies and communities.
The White Paper focuses on further changes to the planning system in efforts to increase supply. It must be acknowledged that, since the National Policy Framework was introduced, both local government’s planning powers and funding have been reduced significantly. Though planning fee uplift is welcome, the White Paper does not sufficiently address these two fundamental issues.