Responding to the report, Cllr Martin Tett, Local Government
Association’s Housing spokesman, said:
“Planning is not a barrier to housebuilding. Council planning
departments are doing an incredible job with extremely limited
resources, approving 9 out of ten applications, with the majority
processed quickly.
“Councils are committed to ensuring homes are built where
they are needed, are affordable, of high-quality and supported by
adequate infrastructure and services, but it is vital that they
have an oversight of local developments.
“We remain clear that the Government’s housing needs formula does
not take into account the complexity and unique needs of local
housing markets, which vary significantly from place to place,
and imposes unfair and undeliverable targets on communities. This
risks leading to a housebuilding free-for-all which will bypass
the needs of local communities and could damage public trust in
the planning system.
“By lifting the housing borrowing cap the Government has accepted
our argument that councils must play a leading role in solving
our national housing shortage. With hundreds of thousands of
homes in England with planning permission but yet to be built, it
also needs to give councils powers to make sure developers build
out approved homes in a timely fashion, and use the Spending
Review to adequately fund planning departments and allow them to
set planning fees locally so they can cover the cost of
processing applications.”
