Households face costly bills for home improvements under Welsh Government planning rules
19 Jun 2014 04:15 PM
David Jones MP:
“Welsh Government should scrap 'Conservatory
Tax'”
Households could be hit with
costly extra bills for home improvements under plans by the Welsh Government to
levy a so-called “Conservatory Tax” which should be scrapped, the
Secretary of State for Wales urged yesterday (19th June 2014).
In a keynote speech to
the annual Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) conference, David Jones MP
will warn that the measure will force people in Wales to spend hundreds or
thousands of pounds on extra work to their homes in addition to the cost of the
extension or home improvement.
Mr Jones will highlight how the
policy – set to start next month in Wales - was rejected by the UK
Government in England after research showed it would discourage nearly 40% of
households from undertaking home improvements in the first
place.
During his speech, Mr Jones will
also call for a radical overhaul of the planning system in Wales which is being
bogged down by bureaucracy and red tape and has led to a fall in the number of
houses being built.
Mr Jones will also say that more
power needs to be decentralised from Cardiff and given to local councils as
they are best placed to make decisions on behalf of their local
communities.
During his speech, Mr Jones will
also highlight how:
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The latest figures from the ONS
show output in Wales lagging behind Great Britain in construction and housing.
Over the last year, new house building decreased by 6.7% in Wales while growth
of 33.6% was recorded across Great Britain.
-
Statistics from the
National House Building Council show that construction fell in Wales
from January to March 2014 but not around the rest of the UK. Some 882 new
homes were registered this year, compared with 1,055 in that period in
2013.
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Wales’s biggest
housebuilder, Redrow, has estimated that as a result of Welsh Government
requirements for the sustainable building code and for all new homes to be
fitted with sprinklers, by 2016 the cost of building a house in Wales will be
up to £13,000 more than across the border in England.
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Another major housebuilder,
Persimmon Homes, said last year that it would stop new home construction in
parts of the south Wales valleys, blaming planning rules and the cost of
regulation.
Mr Jones will tell the
conference:
The UK government is speeding up
the planning process. Guidance has been simplified - reducing often 1,000 of
pages of impenetrable jargon to around 50 pages of clearly written
guidance.
Through our red tape challenge, almost half the housing and
construction regulations considered will be scrapped or improved - changes
which are estimated to save businesses nearly £90 million a
year.
However, all too often the Welsh
Government seems intent on increasing the regulatory burdens on councils,
businesses and households rather than reducing them.
By imposing more and more
onerous building regulations in Wales, the Welsh Government is increasing costs
to house-builders of constructing the starter homes so many families
desperately need and putting up the price of those homes, so that more people
will struggle to get onto the property ladder.
I urge the Welsh Government to
take forward, as a matter of priority, effective reforms to the planning system
to enable Wales to develop a truly modern economy.
Find out how the UK government is giving communities more
power in planning local deveopment.