Wed, Mar 23, 2016 10:36 AM
The 2015 Budget won’t do nearly enough to tackle the country’s housing crisis, the President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) said in response to the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne’s 2015 Budget.
RIBA President Stephen Hodder said: "(The) Budget was an opportunity to demonstrate real commitment to a major programme of investment in new homes and to lay the foundations for supporting successful communities – on both counts the Chancellor has left us uninspired.
"Although the Chancellor’s announcements about new housing and infrastructure in London are positive, such piecemeal measures fall short of the commitment needed to end the housing crisis within a generation. Whoever forms the next government must go much further and champion the long-term sustainable supply of high-quality new homes that people want to live in and communities will support.
"We would have liked to see greater commitment such as the borrowing cap on housing revenue accounts abolished to allow councils to build homes in their area and a concrete plan for the use of publicly-owned land to boost housing supply.
"The London Land Commission can play a vital role in unlocking brownfield development sites across the capital and we urge the government to extend this strategy to other areas of the UK. We need a more concerted approach to redeveloping brownfield sites and ensuring that new housing is supported by high-quality infrastructure."
On devolution he said the government has made welcome progress in delivering more powers to local and regional bodies and RIBA strongly support the devolution of additional business rate revenues to Manchester and Cambridge as a first step to giving local authorities the resources to invest in their communities.
"However we are concerned that the accompanying review of business rates could effectively reduce the amount available," he added.
"We believe that the next government should go much further and ensure that the power to fund and coordinate housing and infrastructure development rests with local communities rather than Whitehall. The new housing zones and enterprise zones announced must not exist in isolation - local authorities must be given the necessary authority and resources to make these a genuine success."
