Responding to the publication of the Government’s Housing White
Paper, Cllr Martin Tett, Housing spokesman at the Local
Government Association, said:
“This White Paper includes some encouraging signs that government
is listening to councils on how to boost housing supply and
increase affordability. We are pleased it has taken on board a
number of recommendations made in our recent Housing Commission
final report.
“Communities must have faith that the planning system responds to
their aspirations for their local area, rather than simply being
driven by national targets. To achieve this, councils must have
powers to ensure that new homes are affordable and meet their
assessments of local need, are attractive and well-designed, and
are supported by the schools, hospitals, roads and other services
vital for places to succeed.
"All types of homes - including those for affordable and social
rent – have to be built to solve our housing crisis and
flexibility around starter homes is much-needed recognition of
this. It is important that councils have powers to ensure a mix
of homes are built, alongside the infrastructure to support
strong communities.
"Our cities, towns and villages are already saying ‘yes’ to
development as nine in 10 planning applications are approved, but
increasingly the homes are not being built. Giving councils the
power to force developers to build homes more quickly and to
properly fund their planning services are vital for our
communities to prosper.
"Local government believes even more needs to be done to rapidly
build more genuinely affordable homes to help families struggling
to meet housing costs, provide homes to rent, reduce homelessness
and tackle the housing waiting lists many councils have.
“For this to happen, councils desperately need the powers and
access to funding to resume their historic role as a major
builder of affordable homes. This means being able to borrow to
invest in housing and to keep 100 per cent of the receipts from
properties sold through Right to Buy to replace homes and
reinvest in building more of the genuine affordable homes our
communities desperately need.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
The LGA's Housing
Commission, set up to explore new ways to boost
housebuilding, has set out more than 30 recommendations for how
local and national government can work together to solve the
nation's housing challenges.
