The government have announced a set of measures designed to tackle the UK’s housing crisis, in the much-anticipated Housing White Paper unveiled to Parliament on Tuesday.
Communities secretary Sajid Javid called the measures a “radical vision”, after admitting that the current market was “broken”. At least 250,000 new homes are needed each year to keep up with demand, with Javid telling Parliament that local councils and developers need to “get real” to the scale of the challenge.
The new strategy allows councils to pressurise developers to start building on land they own, as well as encouraging developers to avoid building “low-density” housing where land space is scarce.
In a statement to MPs, Javid also highlighted measures including forcing councils to produce an up-to-date plan for housing demand, encouraging councils to allow more dense building and to increase planning fees by 20 percent.
The Housing White Paper signalled a turnaround from previous policy, which had leant towards an increase in Starter Homes – a scheme allowing first time buyers to buya new-build house at a 20 percent discount. The government had previously said that 20 percent of all new homes should be built on this model, but has dropped the requirement to 10 percent. Similarly, there was no commitment to a minimum of how many of these houses should be built.
During the statement to Parliament Javid was asked by Conservative MP Peter Bone whether reducing immigration would solve the housing crisis.
Javid replied that it was unlikely to make the difference “he thinks it would”, saying that two thirds of demand is due to people living longer and adding that even if immigration fell to zero there would still be a two million deficit of homes.
Green MP Caroline Lucas asked why the secretary of state would not lift the borrowing cap so councils can build more homes, adding that there were 26,000 people on the waiting list for houses in her consituency of Brighton and Hove. Javid replied that the government gave local councils more borrowing powers two years ago and that there was “headroom” to increase it further.
Ashurst’s head of planning, Trevor Goode, commented on the paper:
“The importance of the long-awaited Housing White Paper cannot be underestimated. It’s evidence of a shift in Government policy towards tackling the underlying problems associated with housing delivery and it’s clear that ministers have listened and have produced a paper which identifies and seeks to find solutions to the housing shortage. The focus on simplifying the promotion of local plans, speeding up delivery and encouraging all forms of housing and tenures is welcome.