Prime Minister
Theresa May has hosted a housing summit at 10 Downing Street.
The PM met with
housing developers, housing associations and local government to discuss plans
to increase housing supply.
Representatives of
large and small housing developers, housing associations and local government
were invited to discuss achieving a step change in the delivery of new homes.
At the meeting, the
Prime Minister emphasised the government’s ambition to tackle one of the
biggest challenges facing our country today – fixing the broken housing market.
For too many people, home ownership has moved increasingly out of reach, and
people are finding themselves spending longer in insecure private rented
accommodation that is becoming ever more expensive.
"The Prime
Minister outlined her plans to increase housing supply which means developers,
big and small, local authorities and housing associations all stepping up to
play their part," said a Downing Street spokesman.
"Other issues
discussed included making the most of modern methods of construction, having
the skilled workers we need, helping small and medium sized enterprises grow
and making sure planning permissions granted by councils were delivered into
new homes.
"Those in
attendance also had an opportunity to set out their ideas and commitments, as
well as the actions needed to remove the barriers they were facing in building
new homes.
"They also
discussed some of the recent measures taken by government including enabling
130,000 more families to get on the housing ladder through the £10 billion Help
to Buy scheme and an additional £2 billion for affordable housing.
"It was a
positive and collaborative meeting which needs to signal a step change in house
building if we are to build a country that truly works for everyone."
Lord Porter,
chairman of the Local Government Association, said the fact that local
government had a seat at the table at the Prime Minister’s housing summit is
another positive sign that the Government rightly sees councils as part of the
solution to our housing shortage.
"It was
encouraging that everyone around the table agreed with us about the important
role councils must play and pleasing that the Prime Minister is taking personal
ownership of this challenge," he added. "The last time we were
building the number of homes that the country needs, in the 1970s, councils
were building 40 per cent of them.
“Councils want to
get on with the job of building the new homes that people in their areas
desperately need again and are already playing their part by approving nine out
of 10 planning applications.
“We now hope to see
positive action taken by the Government in the Autumn Budget to spark the
genuine renaissance in council housebuilding we desperately need.
“This includes the
lifting of the housing borrowing cap to allow councils to invest in building
new affordable homes, enabling councils to keep 100 per cent of receipts from
any homes they sell and ensuring planning departments can be adequately funded
so that they can cover the cost of processing applications.”
