Former Ministers Slam The Government's "Weak" Reforms For Housebuilding

Former ministers have hit out at the government's "weak" planning forms, saying the measures are not bold enough to end the UK's housing crisis. A year ago today, the government produced its housing white paper, which promised to "fix our broken housing market". However, it stopped short of the radical planning changes that would allow for more rapid housebuilding. More recently, the government has said it will make it easier for homeowners to build upwards on their properties. Tory MPs John Penrose, Nick Boles, and Mark Prisk, former ministers for architecture, planning and housing respectively, slammed the proposed reforms, saying they do not go far enough. Read more on the City AM website.

http://www.cityam.com/280153/former-ministers-slam-governments-weak-reforms

New Housing Agency To Boost Housebuilding

A new national housing agency – Homes England – has been launched by Housing Secretary Sajid Javid as one of the key steps towards delivering the homes the country needs. As the successor to the Homes and Communities Agency, Homes England will drive forward change, as set out in the government’s housing white paper. Homes England will play a major role in fixing the housing market by helping to deliver an average of 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s. Read more on the Gov UK website.

Housing: Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer

Chris Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to prevent land banking in local communities.

Alok Sharma: It is important to recognise that after planning permission for new homes is granted, a variety of factors can slow down delivery. Rather than focusing on a single issue, the Housing White Paper acknowledged that all parties in the development process need to play their part in speeding up the delivery of much-needed new homes. That is why the Housing White Paper set out a wide ranging approach to driving up build out of planning permissions. We have already taken important steps to help unblock sites, such as the introduction of the Housing Infrastructure Fund and we are considering how to take forward other elements of the Housing White Paper. In addition, we have recently consulted on what further action could be taken to increase build rates as part of our consultation on calculating local housing need. This consultation closed on 9 November and analysis of the responses is now underway.

Planning For The Right Homes In The Right Places

The Government has launched its consultation Planning for the right homes in the right places. This builds on some of the proposals in the Housing White Paper and seeks views on changes to national planning policy to help local planning authorities and communities plan for and deliver the homes they need, including:

·         A standard method for calculating local housing need

·         Improving how authorities work together to meet housing need

·         How the new approach to calculating housing need can help authorities plan for the needs of particular groups

·         Proposals for improving the use of section 106 agreements

Download the consultation form the CLG website.

Council Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Lord Beecham: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the reduction in council housing rents on (1) the maintenance and improvement of the existing council housing stock, and (2) the building of new council houses between now and 2022.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth: I refer the noble Lord to my previous answer to him on 27 March - PQ HL6120. As stated in the Housing White Paper, the Government will in due course set out a rent policy for social landlords for the period beyond 2020 to help them to borrow against future income. Our aim is to ensure that they have the confidence they need about their future income in order to plan ahead.

ALMOs Have ‘Aspirations’ To Build New Homes

Getting all sections of the housing sector to build is one of the main aims of the Housing White Paper unveiled by government. Not to be left behind, many ALMOs are embarking on build programmes in a bid to improve their local area. Your Homes Newcastle are hoping to build just over 400 units by 2020/2021 and have said that despite policy setbacks, such as the rent reduction and impacts of the Housing and Planning Act, they have found ways to get funding. The largest developing ALMO is Nottingham City Homes (NCH) and they are looking to further that by building over 900 homes to improve Nottingham. Read more on 24housing.

BPF Launches Three-Year Pledge For Build To Rent

The British Property Federation (BPF) has given its three-year pledge on behalf of the Build to Rent sector – with 20 of the sector’s most active investors and developers as signatories. In the Housing White Paper, Gavin Barwell asked the sector to offer family-friendly tenancies, such as for three years, for those who want longer-term stability when renting. The BPF and a cohort of the Build to Rent key players have responded and published a pledge to demonstrate the sector’s commitment to providing three-year tenancies and working with government to ensure the sector can play its part in rolling back 20 years’ of housing undersupply. Read more on the BPF website.

Council Rents After 2020

The government has promised further discussions with the housing sector before setting out a new rent policy for the period beyond 2020 "in due course". The policy will help raise borrowing against future income. The recent Housing White Paper confirmed the government will continue with its policy of reducing council and housing association rents by 1% a year for the next three years but promises an announcement "in due course" on a rent policy for social housing landlords (both housing associations and local authorities) for the period beyond 2020. The earliest likely date for an announcement on a new social rent policy is this year's autumn Budget. Read more on the ARCH website.

Right To Buy Extension To Companies Could Reduce Affordable Development

Councils could reassess plans to build affordable rented homes through housing companies after the government said the Right to Buy should apply to these homes. The government’s Housing White Paper said where a council has placed a tenant in an affordable rented home they should have the right to buy this property. Inside Housing understands the government has not decided the legal mechanism it could use to compel councils to sell company-owned homes through Right to Buy. These companies are registered as private businesses, and sit off the council and national balance sheet as a result. Read more on Inside Housing.

Loophole Opens Way For Green Belt Homes

Thousands more homes could be built on the green belt because of loopholes in the government’s plan to accelerate housebuilding, according to a conservation group. Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, told MPs on Tuesday that the green belt was “safe in our hands” and that the government would keep all its “existing strong protections”. However, the housing white paper contains a proposal for councils to review their plans in which they allocate land for housing at least every five years. Read more on the Times website.

Government To Change Definitions Of ‘Affordable’

The government’s White Paper has revealed there will be changes to the definition of the word affordable. In the document, the government say they “intend to publish a revised definition of affordable housing as part of our revised changes to the National Planning Policy Framework”. They have also stated there will be an introduction of  “a definition of affordable private rented housing” looking at forms of affordable housing such as Build to Rent Schemes. The government will also ensure there is a three year minimum tenancy in new private rented sector accommodation. The plans look to provide families and those saving for a deposit the reassurance to save. Read more on 24housing.

HCA Chair: We Will Hammer Councils Which Fail To Deliver Targets

Local authorities which fail to deliver housing delivery targets set through standard measures will get “caned”, the Homes and Communities Agency chair has warned.  Sir Edward Lister suggested that the Local Plans shake-ups in the Housing White Paper were the “most important” factor in the government achieving its target of building a million homes by 2020. He said: “It is about Local Plans and about five-year housing supply being identified sensibly and properly. And there’s all sorts of stuff in the White Paper about that and having to have a five-year housing supply and a Local Plan and if you don’t you’re going to get caned.” Read more on Inside Housing.

The Housing White Paper Revealed

Here is a section by section guide to the document.

·         PRS tenancies - “ensure more longer-term tenancies are available in private rented schemes”.

·         Affordable rent - a reaffirmed commitment to build more affordable homes

·         Planning - councils will be “expected to use land more efficiently” by building homes at higher density

·         Ownership – the aim is for 200,000 more home owners by the end of the parliament and the introduction of the Lifetime ISA will help achieve that

·         Empty Homes - local authorities have the power to tackle empty homes as they earn the same financial reward through the New Homes Bonus as building a new one

·         Leaseholders - The White Paper sets out that there will be a consultation on a range of measures to “tackle all unfair and unreasonable abuses of leasehold.”

·         Green belt back down - no change to the policy which only allows building on the green belt in exceptional circumstances.

Read more on 24housing.

Government To Tweak Planning Laws To Solve Housing Crisis

The Government is to outline a series of tweaks to planning laws it says will help solve the housing shortage. Ministers want to require councils to come with a local plan to meet housing demand in an area, give them more powers to speed up developments, and require developers to use land more efficiently. Crucially, the Government’s long awaited housing white paper includes measures that would effectively scrap the Coalition 2010 housebuilding planning framework and return to a system that bears stronger similarities to the one they inherited from Labour in 2010.  Read more on the Independent website.

Housing White Paper: A Return To Traditional Policy-Making

The Housing White Paper must be the vehicle for building the affordable homes that "just about managing" households need. This requires a coherent and co-ordinated plan across investment, land, planning and construction:

·         The public sector must release land quicker and on a greater scale

·         We should push brownfield land and turn existing planning permissions into active builds through "use it or lose it" powers.

·         We can help older people who wish to downsize to do so

·         We must embrace new technologies, such as offsite manufacturing, to make housebuilding faster and more efficient

·         We must unleash the latent investment capacity of councils and housing associations, even if that jars with political ideology, because they are the best-fit deliverers of affordable housing.

Read more on the RICS website.

May To Offer More Security For Renters

A major shift in Tory housing policy in favour of people who rent will be announced by ministers this week as Theresa May’s government admits that home ownership is now out of reach for millions of families. In a departure from her predecessor David Cameron, who focused on advancing Margaret Thatcher’s ambition for a “home-owning democracy”, a white paper will aim to deliver more affordable and secure rental deals, and threaten tougher action against rogue landlords, for the millions of families unable to buy because of sky-high property prices. Ministers will say they want to change planning and other rules to ensure developers provide a proportion of new homes for “affordable rent” instead of just insisting that they provide a quota of “affordable homes for sale”. Read more on the Observer website.

Number Of Empty Homes Hits Highest Rate For 20 Years

The number of empty homes in the UK is at its highest level for 20 years, calling into question whether the countryside needs to be concreted over for new developments. The Housing White Paper will target car parks near railway stations for new homes, reserve sites for new prefab homes and force developers to build homes more quickly on sites with planning permission. Analysis of Government figures shows that there are more than one million additional homes above those required for households in the UK. This "housing surplus" has nearly doubled from 800,000 spare homes in 1996 to 1.4million homes at any one time in 2014. Read more on the Daily Telegraph.

Barwell: Government Will Stamp Out 'Abuse' Of Leaseholder System

The government is “determined to stamp out” the “unfair, unjust and unacceptable abuse” of the leaseholder system, according to Gavin Barwell. The housing minister attacked the practice of certain developers building leasehold homes solely as a form of “investment vehicle for financial institutions”. Speaking at the Lease Annual Conference, Mr Barwell said reform of the leaseholder system would be included in the long-awaited Housing White Paper. He cited cases where people buy a leasehold only to find the cost of purchasing the freehold is “too prohibitive”. Read more on Inside Housing.

Javid Drops Council House Building Hint For White Paper

Sajid Javid dropped a huge hint that councils would get the chance to build again in the Housing White Paper. The document, which has been delayed numerous times, is going to be “a whole new mindset” according to Javid. Speaking at a Local Government Association event, he said: “It wouldn’t be right for me to reveal everything that’s in the white paper before it’s published.  The white paper will set out serious, lasting, long-term reforms that will boost housing supply immediately and for many years to come. A whole new attitude to house building at all levels – in central government, in the building industry and, yes, in local government too.” Read more on the 24housing website.

Housing White Paper Delayed For Second Time

Communities secretary Sajid Javid told MPs in November that the document, which was initially supposed to be published before the end of last year, was “due to be published in January”. The government had earmarked January 30th for the release, but multiple sources told Property Week that the document will now be published next month instead. One source said Theresa May’s team believed it needed “a few weeks more work”. “It was delivered to No 10 and they view it as not ready for publication and needing a few weeks more work,” the source said. “It’s seriously bad going from the CLG to get to this position so late in the day.” Read more on the Property Week website.