Quarter of A Million Homes Cut From Council Plans

English councils are planning to build 273,000 fewer homes since the coalition government’s abolition of regional planning which allowed authorities to ignore Labour’s top-down housing targets.  According to a report by the Policy Exchange there are 272,720 fewer homes in the planning system today than before the revocation of regional spatial strategies (RSS) in June 2010.  The report, called Planning for Less, finds that despite government assertions to the contrary, the decline in council plans for new homes will ultimately result in fewer homes being built. It says the decision to abolish RSS could contribute to the coalition presiding over the lowest peacetime level of housebuilding since the twenties, and that housebuilding levels will continue to fall unless significant changes to the planning system are made.  Download a copy of the report from the Policy Exchange website.

New Shadow Housing Secretary Vows to Put Council Housing 'Centre Stage'

Labour’s new shadow housing minister has said the party would restore regional planning if put in power at the next election. Jack Dromey, who has been confirmed as shadow to housing minister Grant Shapps, told Building that he had been asked by Labour leader Ed Miliband to put “housing centre stage” as Labour looks to rebuild support. Dromey also said that Labour would put a new era of council house building at the centre of his policies. Dromey said: “The government was absolutely crazy to abolish Regional Spatial Strategies (RSSs) and Regional Development Agencies. We are now the only country in western Europe without effective regional and sub-regional planning. We need to address that.” Read more on the Building website.

Experts Call For Government to Reconcile Localism with Growth to Deliver Housing

A group of property experts led by Tristan Fitzgerald Associates (TFA) and BNP Paribas Real Estate has put together a paper assessing the impact that localism will have on future housing delivery and puts forward seven recommendations for how the Government will house the nation under localism. The research examined the effects of the proposed scrapping of Regional Spatial Strategies and Core Strategies on the forecast supply of housing across England. The results showed that half of England’s 291 local authorities have confirmed their housing target as being the same as set out in their RSS which translates to targets amounting to just over 85,000 new houses per year being confirmed. A further 14% of local authorities have confirmed a change with only 2% increasing their targets, while 12% made cuts. The average change among those authorities which altered their targets, both up and down, was a cut of 20.6%. The research also shows that of the remaining 36% of local authorities yet to confirm their targets 90% have indicated they will not be sticking with the RSS targets. Read more and download the paper at the BNP Paribas website.