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.

Council Claims Vacant Building Credit Will Reduce Supply of Affordable Housing

A London borough has claimed that it would have lost a third of its affordable housing provision if the Government’s Vacant Building Credit (VBC) had been applied to recently consented schemes. Based on 14 recently consented major schemes , predominantly in the Vauxhall regeneration area, Lambeth Council said it has calculated that instead of a the current total of 866 affordable units, if VBC had been applied, this figure would have been 592 – a 32% reduction. The VBC introduced by the Government as a means of encouraging the redevelopment of more brownfield sites by easing the requirement on developers to contribute to affordable housing. Read more on the Housing Excellence website.