Affordable Housing: Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to increase developer contributions to affordable housing.

Christopher Pincher: We intend to reform the current approach to developer contributions by creating a new, single system, the Infrastructure Levy. This new Levy would be a flat rate, value based charge, set nationally, at either a single rate, or at area specific rates, and charged on the final value of a development. The new Levy would be able to fund both affordable housing and supporting infrastructure. Our proposals are set out in our White Paper ‘Planning for the Future’ which was published on 6 August and is out to consultation until 29 October.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2020-07-22/78851 

Planning White Paper Ignores Accessible Housing

The government has been accused of “showing contempt” for disabled people after publishing an “utterly shameful” 84-page white paper on the future of the planning system without including a single mention of disabled people, disability or accessible housing. The Planning for the Future document makes repeated references to the need for “beautiful new homes”, “beautiful places” and “beautiful buildings”, while ignoring the accessible housing crisis. There is also no mention of wheelchair-users in the white paper, which looks only at England, even though successive Tory ministers have been repeatedly warned of the dire shortage of suitable wheelchair-accessible housing. Read more on the Disability News Service website.

https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/governments-contempt-for-disabled-people-as-planning-white-paper-ignores-accessible-housing/