Government Launches Brownfield Registers

Housing and planning minister Gavin Barwell has announced that local authorities across England will now have to produce and maintain up-to-date registers listing all brownfield sites available for housing. The registers will be available to the public and the aim of them is to help house builders identify suitable brownfield sites for development. They will allow local communities to highlight local derelict or underused building sites that are primed for development. These new registers will give local authorities and developers the tools to do this. Brownfield registers were first piloted in 2016, when 73 local planning authorities across the country pioneered the measures. Read more on the Planner website.

First UK Rent-To-Buy Scheme Agreed

An agreement has been reached that will see the UK’s first affordable rent-to-buy houses built in Plymouth. Plymouth-based housing companies Persimmon Homes and Rentplus have signed an agreement to develop 19 new affordable rent-to-buy homes in the city aimed at tackling the region’s housing shortage and helping people into home ownership. The Rentplus homes are available at up to 80 per cent of local market rent for an agreed period of between five and 20 years. When the tenancy has finished, the occupants are given the opportunity to buy the house and will be given a 10 per cent deposit by Rentplus to do so.  Read more on The Planner website.