Brandon Lewis has called the government’s new Housing and Planning Bill the start of a national crusade to transform generation rent into generation buy.
The minister said the publication sent a clear signal that the government would keep the country building while giving hard-working families every opportunity to unlock the door to home ownership.
Measures include:
- New affordable Starter Homes – a new legal duty will be placed on councils to guarantee the provision of 200,000 Starter Homes on all reasonably sized new development sites; these will be offered to first-time buyers at a 20% discount on market prices
- Local Plans – providing the government with targeted powers to ensure that all councils get Local Plans in place by 2017, so they can help provide the homes their communities need
- Pay to Stay – ensuring that those tenants on higher incomes who are living in social housing have a rent that reflects their ability to pay, while those who genuinely need support continue to receive it
- automatic planning permission in principle on brownfield sites – to bring forward more land to build new homes quicker, while protecting the green belt planning reforms to support small builders – placing a new duty on councils to help allocate land so 20,000 custom and self-built homes a year can be built by 2020
- measures to tackle rogue landlords – giving councils the power to blacklist, and in extreme cases ban those who don’t abide by the law, while helping decent landlords recover abandoned homes quicker
- Ensuring high value assets are managed effectively – ensuring the sale of high value council assets that can be used to support people into home ownership.
A RIBA spokesperson said: “The RIBA welcomes the Government’s recognition that the shortage of housing has reached a crisis point. However, it is becoming clear that the solution to the housing crisis is not going to be found in tinkering around the edges of the planning system. As the Housing Bill passes through Parliament we hope the Government will set out more detail on how they intend to ensure that the quality of new homes is given the same priority as the numbers.
“We are concerned that the pressure to raise output and speed up the planning system through initiatives like starter homes and zonal planning will do little to change the public debate and challenge knee-jerk opposition to new developments even in areas with acute housing shortages.
“The shortage of resources in the planning system and the long delays that this is causing is of major concern to the RIBA. The requirement to have an adopted local plan by 2017 is welcome, however this needs to be done in a way that secures local support and leads to plans that acknowledge the scale of the challenge.
“The shortage of affordable homes across the country is of particular concern to the RIBA. Housing Associations have played a leading role in helping deliver high-quality new homes and strong communities – including the 2015 Stirling Prize shortlisted Darbishire Place. If the extension of the right to buy leads to fewer new homes being built, it is vital that the Government sets out its plans to replace this output.”