Responding to latest housebuilding figures and Communities
Secretary ’s speech, Cllr Martin Tett, the
LGA’s Housing Spokesman, said:
“While today’s housebuilding figures are encouraging, we are
still significantly short of the 300,000 homes we need to be
building each year. The last time we hit that number, in the
1970s, councils built more than 40 per cent of them.
“There is no way to solve our chronic housing shortage without a
renaissance in council house building. For that to happen,
councils must have new freedoms to invest in new housing that
would quickly generate huge returns for public services and local
economies. If councils were free to borrow against their housing
assets, they could build the homes that our communities
desperately need.
“Councils are serious about delivering the right kind of
homes, supported by infrastructure, for our residents, and are
playing their part – approving nine out of 10 planning
permissions. Instead of trying to manage councils from Whitehall,
we would all be better off with an approach that is mutually
agreed by the sector to tackle challenging planning
decisions.
“The Chancellor has an opportunity to go down in the history
books as the Chancellor who allowed an entire generation of
affordable homes to be created, by allowing councils the freedom
to borrow to build. We encourage him to take this opportunity in
the Autumn Budget next Wednesday.”
