Warnings issued: potential insufficient housing target to construct 300,000 homes annually, as asserted by MPs
Government's Planning Reforms Under Scrutiny Over Housing Targets
The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Committee has raised concerns about the government's proposal to drop mandatory local housing targets, warning that it could hinder efforts to increase new home building.
In a recent report, the Committee criticised the government for failing to set out a comprehensive resources and skills strategy for the planning sector, and for not providing sufficient evidence to demonstrate how scrapping mandatory housing targets will lead to more housebuilding.
The government's standard method for housebuilding currently focuses on areas where economic activity is already high, but the Committee calls for a revised standard method that takes account of future local need. The report also emphasises the need for a substantial proportion of the 300,000 new homes the government aims to deliver by the mid-2020s to be for social rent.
The Committee's report also criticised the stop-start reform on national planning policy over several years, which it said had caused uncertainty for local authorities and planners, delayed local plans, and slowed new house building. The standard method of calculating housing need is found to be not fit for purpose, and the Committee suggests that a target of 90,000 social rent homes per year should be included in the government's objective.
Last week, the Mayor of London announced he wanted the government to re-think its plans about introducing a new infrastructure levy, claiming that developers in the capital city will be unable to keep up with costs due to the levy, which may slow down the number of homes being built. The Mayor also expressed concern that the levy may interfere with plans to build essential new buildings such as schools and health centres.
The government is on track to deliver a million new homes over the course of this parliament, but is not forecast to deliver 300,000 net new homes per year by the mid-2020s. Planning consultants predict annual housebuilding to go down to around 150,000 a year under the government's proposed policy reforms.
Clive Betts, chair of the LUHC Committee, stated that the government's latest planning rule shake-up is having a damaging impact on efforts to increase the building of new homes. The Committee is also concerned that the revised standard method encourages regeneration across the country, but at the expense of new housebuilding. The standard method includes an arbitrary 35 percent uplift for urban centres, which the Committee believes is not a fair representation of local need.
The name of the minister responsible for planning new housing in England is not clearly identified in the provided search results, and the date they assumed office is not available from these sources. The standard method is based on 2014-based housing projections, which the Committee believes is outdated and does not accurately reflect current housing need.
In conclusion, the LUHC Committee's report raises serious concerns about the government's approach to housebuilding and planning policy, and calls for a more comprehensive and evidence-based strategy to increase new home building and address social housing need.
