Ministers Make U-Turn on Affordable Housing Dodge

Conservative ministers have been forced to rethink planning guidance that critics claimed was a shambles and would have allowed property developers to avoid an estimated £1bn in payments towards affordable homes. The “empty building credit” would have allowed developers to avoid paying for homes for poorer people if they emptied buildings for a period before converting them to private flats. But the government quietly changed the guidance on 26 March to give councils powers to test whether a building had been made vacant for the sole purpose of redevelopment and if they could insist on affordable housing payments. It also gave councils powers to block attempts by developers who had already agreed to make affordable housing payments from resubmitting planning papers under the new system in a bid to avoid what Brandon Lewis, the Conservative housing minister, branded “a stealth tax”. Read more on the Guardian website.