WIREDGOV

Cllr Peter Box, Housing Spokesman for the Local Government Association (LGA) responded to new planning rules for the building of new starter homes.

"The shortage of houses in this country is a top concern for people who are finding that buying their first house is increasingly out of reach.

"Councils understand the need to provide more homes for first-time buyers and are already taking steps to make first-time homes more affordable. This includes providing public sector land where locally appropriate and offering mortgage support to first-time buyers.

"New starter homes cannot be built in isolation and under these plans, starter homes would be built without any wider community needs. Where there is a development of starter homes with implications for local infrastructure, such as schools, community centres, transport links and flood defences, then government funding should be provided to meet these demands.

"Further analysis and evidence is needed to convince councils that applying these exemptions would actually be sufficient to fund building on difficult brownfield sites as well as being able to pass on the savings in the form of a 20 per cent discount on completed homes."

Notes to editors

1. The LGA is calling on whoever forms the next government to free councils to build 500,000 new homes by:
2. Putting in place a meaningful incentives scheme to encourage private developers to speed up the delivery of housing which already has planning permission. Incentives should include reducing up-front costs and risks through early discussions with developers; guarantees and phasing payments for infrastructure. This would be alongside financial penalties through the Community Infrastructure Levy and council tax system where planning permission has expired. This will bring forward the estimated 60,000 homes on hold or classified as ‘shelved' in 2013 and speed up the delivery of private sector homes more widely, delivering an estimated additional 90,000 homes.
3. Creating council-led local land trusts with powers to pool surplus central and local government land for housing and make decisions about its disposal. Trusts would operate on a 'build now, pay later' model to support large sites to come forward with necessary infrastructure and affordable housing, a model which could also be applied to private sector landowners. This would enable 140,000 homes to be built over the next Parliament;
4. Immediately removing the Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap, replacing it with the same controls that apply to any other council borrowing, leading to 80,000 homes over five years. This would be in addition to the estimated 80,000 homes councils plan to build in partnership with housing associations and private developers over the next five years.
5. Scrapping the Right to Buy scheme's complex arrangements for councils and ensuring the discount offered is in line with the local housing market and stimulates sales and that the receipts from sales are retained directly by the council to reinvest in replacement housing. This will allow councils to replace around 50,000 houses sold through Right to Buy.

Contact

Greg Burns, Senior Media Relations Officer
Local Government Association
Telephone: 020 7664 3184
Email: greg.burns@local.gov.uk
Media Office (for out-of-hours contact): 020 7664 3333
Local Government House, Smith Square, London SW1P 3HZ