Responding to new planning laws due to be announced by the Prime
Minister today in the new National Planning Policy Framework,
, Chairman of the Local
Government Association, said:
“In the last year, councils and their communities granted nearly
twice as many planning permissions as the number of new homes
that were completed. Councils approved more than 321,000 new
homes in 2016/17, while there were around 183,000 new homes added
in the same year. More than423,000 homes with planning permission
are still waiting to be built.
“The truth is that councils are currently approving nine in 10
planning applications, which shows that the planning system is
working well and is not a barrier to building. Nearly
three-quarters (73 per cent) of planning refusals are upheld
on appeal, vindicating councils’ original decisions.
“It is completely wrong, therefore, to suggest the country’s
failure to build the housing it desperately needs is down to
councils. The threat of stripping councils of their rights
to decide where homes are built is unhelpful and misguided.
“The last time the country delivered 300,000 homes which this
country needs each year, in the 1970s, councils were responsible
for more than 40 per cent of them and it’s essential that we get
back to that. In order for that to happen, councils have to be
able to borrow to build homes again.
“It is essential that councils and their communities are
empowered to ensure local development creates prosperous places,
that new homes are good quality and affordable, and that they are
supported by crucial services and infrastructure such as roads
and schools.
“No-one can live in a planning permission. Developers need to get
on with building affordable homes with the needed infrastructure
and councils need greater powers to act where housebuilding has
stalled.
“The Government must also end national policies that undermine
the local voice of councils and communities. This includes
scrapping permitted development rights that allow developers to
convert offices into homes without planning permission, which
accounted for one in 10 new homes last year.
“Ultimately, the private sector will never build enough of the
homes the country needs on its own. The Government must back the
widespread calls, including from the Treasury Select Committee,
for council borrowing and investment freedoms to spark a
renaissance in house building by local government.”
