The Authorities has introduced a brand new raft of proposals to extend housebuilding because it tries to fulfill its promise of constructing 300,000 properties a 12 months by the mid-2020s.
Michael Gove informed an viewers in London on Monday the Authorities is on observe to ship a million new properties throughout the present Parliament and put ahead a sequence of proposals to deal with the UK’s housing disaster.
Under, the PA information company seems on the key questions surrounding the housing disaster and the latest proposals.
– How dangerous is the housing disaster?
It’s troublesome to measure the complete scale of the UK’s housing disaster however most measures counsel it’s extreme.
A 2019 examine by Heriot-Watt College steered England alone wanted to construct 340,000 homes per 12 months, together with 145,000 reasonably priced properties, to fulfill the backlog, whereas the Centre for Cities assume tank steered the UK is lacking 4 million properties.
Whereas the Authorities has dedicated to constructing 300,000 properties a 12 months, it’s lacking its goal, with 233,000 properties accomplished in 2021/22.
The official ready checklist for social housing stays at about 1.2 million households, whereas an investigation by The Unbiased discovered two-thirds of native authorities did not construct a single council home in 2021/22.
The shortfalls imply tenants are usually compelled into sub-standard housing, whereas will increase in non-public rents have accelerated for the reason that Covid pandemic.
Based on property agent Hamptons, non-public rents for brand new tenancies rose by 11.1% within the final monetary 12 months, whereas rents in fascinating areas rose even quicker. In London, rents rose by virtually 17.2% and averaged £2,210 per 30 days.
– What is the Authorities proposing?
The Government’s latest announcement on the housing disaster comprises a raft of proposals designed to spice up the variety of new properties.
One is for a evaluation of “permitted improvement rights” to permit retailers and takeaways to be transformed into properties with out the necessity for planning permission. Such rights exist already for some properties, reminiscent of workplace blocks, with conversions accounting for 22,770 new properties in 2021/22.
The opposite important prong of the announcement is a concentrate on brownfield websites and “city areas” quite than “concreting over the countryside”, with a brand new “city quarter” in Cambridge set to be the primary space to learn from a brand new “tremendous squad” of planners engaged on clearing obstacles to main housing developments.
The precise location of this new improvement – with properties, laboratories and inexperienced areas – will not be clear, however related plans had been unveiled earlier this 12 months for Cambridge Metropolis Airport, which was taken out of the inexperienced belt in 2006.
Different proposals introduced by Housing Secretary Michael Gove embrace a £24 million fund for coaching within the expertise wanted to extend housebuilding, and an Workplace for Place to guide a “design revolution”, following on from his promise of guaranteeing new properties are “lovely” and designed alongside native communities.
– Will it work?
Commentators are sceptical as as to if the Government’s latest proposals will do a lot to resolve the housing disaster, with a number of pointing to the choice to scrap housebuilding targets on the finish of final 12 months as a key downside.
Property consultancy Knight Frank’s head of planning, Stuart Baillie, stated plans to develop permitted improvement rights are “unlikely to have significant influence on housing provide”, leading to a whole lot quite than 1000’s of recent properties.
Comparable conversions have additionally been criticised for offering poor high quality housing, with the City and Nation Planning Affiliation telling MPs they represented “the worst face of the present UK housing disaster”.
Plans for a concentrate on brownfield web site are additionally prone to run into bother.
The “brownfield first” method has successfully been planning coverage for years and successive governments have made related commitments to “concentrate on brownfield” earlier than.
Below Liz Truss, then-housing secretary Sir Simon Clarke informed the Conservative Celebration convention in 2022 he would pace up brownfield improvement, Boris Johnson informed the Commons he was dedicated to “brownfield first” in 2020, and David Cameron pledged in 2011 to launch big swathes of brownfield land for housebuilding.
However brownfield improvement is commonly costlier than constructing on inexperienced fields, with the websites presenting challenges reminiscent of contaminants, and proposals usually meet native opposition anyway.
Inside hours of the latest announcement, South Cambridgeshire MP Anthony Browne had already declared his opposition to “the Government’s nonsense plans to impose mass housebuilding on Cambridge”.
Such opposition is commonly motivated by concern in regards to the influence on native sources, with Mr Brown saying the world has “fairly actually run out of water”.Some greenfield improvement will even be wanted in any case, with estimates suggesting there may be solely house on brownfield websites for simply over a million properties.
However others are extra optimistic. Victoria Hills, chief government of the Royal City Planning Institute, stated the plans would “make a major contribution to assuaging the stress positioned on England’s planning companies” whereas Ryan Shorthouse of centre-right assume tank Vivid Blue stated they had been “sturdy steps in direction of attaining larger and greener properties” extra could be wanted.
