The communities secretary has said councils ‘strangled an
already declining housing market’ by insisting developers build affordable
homes. Pickles said councils’ drive to ensure affordable homes has stymied
development through overly stringent targets.
Asked if councils were doing enough to ensure affordable housing is
built, he said: ‘Well there’s got to be a degree of practicality about it. I
think there is a kind of very sterile argument in which councils try to outbid
each other trying to get the numbers of social housing as a percentage up. All
it simply did was to strangle an already declining housing market. So, one of
the things we brought in was to have a look at section 106 agreements and have
a look what was practical and sustainable. And often it just involved a rather
small percentage adjustment, and that’s one of the reasons we’ve been able to
start building again.’ Read more on Inside Housing.
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