Briefings and responses

No leaseholder should have to pay the costs of making their homes safe and the Secretary of State’s threat to use the legal system to ensure developers meet their responsibilities to leaseholders is a positive step in the right direction. However, leaseholders are not the only innocent victims of the construction industry’s failure to build safe homes.

The LGA’s view is that the best way to increase housing security is to address the unaffordability of housing, which is a key reason why many people lose their tenancy and become homeless. To fix the unaffordability of housing, the Government needs to reform Right to Buy so that councils can build more genuinely affordable homes, by allowing councils to keep 100 per cent of receipts from homes sold to reinvest in housing delivery.

To meet the Government’s aspirations for the build out of new homes to help deliver 300,000 new homes per year, the Government needs to provide councils with the tools to encourage and oblige developers to build out sites with permission in a swift and timely manner.

Only a publicly financed substantial programme of council house building supported by government grants for construction will help the Government meet its target of 300,000 new homes. This means cooperation and partnership across the sector, including Government, councils, housing associations, landowners/developers, and the construction sector.

It is vital that new burdens funding is provided to councils to support the proactive work necessary to ensure compliance with the legislation. This will enable councils to ensure compliance through supporting freeholders to understand and comply with the new requirements, with financial penalties being used as a matter of last resort.

Councils want to be able to create great communities and support local involvement in designing, planning and creating great places for current and future generations.

Rather than responding to every question in the consultation, our response focuses primarily on concerns about the potential impact of the tax on affordable housing delivery and where the proposed ‘collection agent’ role should sit.

It is important that the funding made available during COVID-19 is not a one-off emergency response. A recent report by the Kerslake Commission on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping found that the elevated funding made available to local authorities amid the pandemic should be maintained if the Government wishes to achieve its pre-election commitment to end rough sleeping.

In August 2020, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) published the Planning for the Future White Paper with proposals for long-term fundamental structural changes to England’s planning system.

The most controversial aspect of the Bill remains the question of who pays to remediate the consequences of twenty years of systemic failure in building safety.