Ministers ‘To Ditch Overhaul Of Planning Laws’

The government is reportedly backpedalling on its commitment to overhaul planning laws in order to accelerate infrastructure projects with a target of building 300,000 homes a year in England. Part of the government’s “Project Speed”, the new planning laws were announced in the Queen’s speech with the target of modernising and simplifying the system and increasing the number of homes being planned by more than a third. The planning reforms have been met with criticism from countryside campaigners, who said the changes would lead to the “suburbanisation” of green areas without delivering much-needed affordable housing. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/sep/11/ministers-to-ditch-overhaul-of-planning-laws-after-criticism 

Converting Shops To Flats ‘Could Lead To Low-Quality Homes’

New planning laws to make it easier to turn empty shops into flats could result in poor-quality homes with “absolutely no privacy”, campaigners claim. However, a separate rule change should mean an end to tiny “rabbit hutch” flats. The coronavirus pandemic is changing the face of the UK’s high streets, with thousands of shops having closed permanently since the first lockdown in March 2020. At the same time, calls for more homes to be created continue to get louder. Read more on the Guardian website.

Converting shops to flats ‘could lead to low-quality homes’ | Property | The Guardian 

Johnson’s Planning Laws An ‘Utter Disaster’, Say Countryside Campaigners

A dramatic loosening of planning laws to create a housebuilding boom will damage local democracy and destroy swathes of countryside by granting property developers a freer hand to build over green fields, planning experts have warned. The new laws, part of the government’s “Project Speed” to accelerate infrastructure projects, are intended to increase the number of homes being planned by more than a third. But critics described them as “an utter disaster” which would return the country to “a deregulated dark age of development”. Read more on the Guardian website.

Johnson’s planning laws an ‘utter disaster’, say countryside campaigners | Queen's speech | The Guardian 

UK High Streets Could Be Turned Into Housing

Promises by government ministers to revitalise high streets with a new breed of shops should be abandoned in favour of turning town centres into residential hubs, creating at least 800,000 homes, according to a report that aims to influence a Downing Street review of planning laws. The Social Market Foundation (SMF) said the decline of the traditional high street could not be reversed by policies that “turn the clock back” to a time before online shopping, especially after the trend accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic. Empty shops should be given a new lease of life as homes or be torn down in favour of modern apartments. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jul/22/uk-high-streets-could-be-turned-into-housing-says-thinktank

'Nimby' Councils Failing To Build Enough Homes Will Lose Planning Powers, Says Javid

“Nimby” councils that don’t build enough homes will be stripped of the right to decide where new houses are placed in their area. Housing secretary Sajid Javid warned local authorities he would be “breathing down your neck every day and night” to ensure home-building targets were met. An overhaul of planning laws will give councils targets for how many homes they should build each year, taking into account local house prices, wages and the number of key workers such as nurses, teachers and police officers in the area. Higher targets will be set for areas with higher “unaffordability ratios”. If councils fail to deliver on the target they will be stripped of planning powers, and independent inspectors will take over. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/mar/04/nimby-councils-homes-lose-planning-powers-sajid-javid

Developers ‘Underestimating Profits’ To Avoid Building Social Housing

Tens of thousands of people in England and Wales are urging their local councils to stop housing developers from purposefully avoiding building affordable housing. The 38 Degrees campaign, started by 27 members across England and Wales, comes after leaked documents revealed developers are deliberately misleading councils on expected profit. Current planning law in England and Wales states that if a developer will not make ‘competitive returns’ – typically assumed to be 20% profit on a new development – they can ignore the council’s regulations about building affordable and social housing. The developers’ leaked documents have shown that the calculations they use to work out their profit margins are purposefully misleading. Read more on 24housing.

Government To Tweak Planning Laws To Solve Housing Crisis

The Government is to outline a series of tweaks to planning laws it says will help solve the housing shortage. Ministers want to require councils to come with a local plan to meet housing demand in an area, give them more powers to speed up developments, and require developers to use land more efficiently. Crucially, the Government’s long awaited housing white paper includes measures that would effectively scrap the Coalition 2010 housebuilding planning framework and return to a system that bears stronger similarities to the one they inherited from Labour in 2010.  Read more on the Independent website.

UK Housing Crisis Isn’t Supply Problem

Conventional wisdom maintains that the bubble in UK home prices is due to inadequate supply. Conventional wisdom is wrong. Despite tough British planning laws, the shortage of housing across the country is not acute. Overvaluation is largely the result of ultra-low interest rates. Low interest rates may be with us for a while. Relative to income, house prices have never been as unaffordable as they are today. Is a shortage in new homes to blame for the high prices? Last year, housing completions in the United Kingdom rose to just over 150,000. That’s 30 percent less than the average number of housing units completed annually in the 1980s. The solution is simple, say the pundits: Britain needs more houses. Planning regulations should be relaxed. Yet if high home prices were really the result of shortages, more people would be squeezed under the same roof. Read more on the Reuters website.

Housing Crisis: 1m Construction Workers Needed

The UK needs to create one million more construction jobs over the next five years if house-building targets are to be met, according to a new report. The study was released as the Government moves to realise a lofty ambition of building one million new homes by 2020 - aided by relaxing planning laws - with a focus on more affordable homes. But the drive to get more shovels at-the-ready to ease the UK's housing shortage has been met with complaints from the construction industry that a lack of skilled staff is hampering development. Underlining the sense of urgency was the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), which said the skills shortage was becoming more acute rather than improving. Thousands of top labourers, who lost their jobs and headed abroad to find work during the financial crisis, have not returned while apprenticeships are falling short of requirements. Read more on the Sky News website.

Tenancy Rent Controls Won’t Make Housing More Affordable

Home seekers would face higher rents and restricted choice if tenancy rent controls were introduced in the UK. New research argues that policymakers should instead look to radically shake up planning laws in order to facilitate more private rented accommodation and improve individual wellbeing through increased affordability. The Flaws in Rent Ceilings looks at the Labour Party’s proposal to bring down the cost of renting and improve tenant security through the introduction of tenancy rent controls. The paper finds that instead of achieving its desired aims, such constraints on the market would result in higher initial rents, a misallocation of housing and a reduction in the supply of homes to rent – without improving affordability.  The study also calls into question claims that individuals suffer from a lack of security of tenure in the private rented sector. Secure tenancies are provided by the market for those willing to pay for them.  Download a copy of the report from the Institute of Economic Affairs website.