Housing is in the news. The debate has been stimulated by a speech Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (and who I am PPS to) gave last month. I think we should welcome what he said for a few reasons, not least given new housing is one of our thorniest local issues.
The Government wants to see the densification of cities i.e. more homes built in them. Various environmental groups with concerns about housebuilding agree that if you’re going to build houses you should build them in a concentrated way, rather than thinly spread across the country.
Doing so helps protect greenfield land but it also makes it easier to provide the transport and other services that those in the homes need. Part of the problem we have in Oxfordshire is Oxford demanding the highest number of homes possible and then not building them, so they’re built in this area instead for people who work in Oxford, meaning some local people complain of feeling like they live in dormitory towns/villages.
Michael Gove reiterated what the Government will do with its forthcoming Infrastructure Levy, which will replace the unsatisfactory system at the moment of Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy monies which are committed to and either sit in council bank accounts or never arrive. Local authorities will be able to vary the amount they charge in different areas, for example charging lower rates if you are building on a brownfield site.
The Government’s new Office for Place will support communities to demand that the houses built are well-designed and in keeping with the local area and to reject ugly designs from developers. There are new standards being set for those in social housing and further actions to be taken to support leaseholders to actually own their properties.
Although not in the speech, the Government is also ending the requirement to demonstrate a 5-year land supply if your local plan is up to date and it has been consulting on what to do about the developers and landowners who persistently ignore planning rules or fail to deliver the commitments they’ve made to the local community, including whether they can be stopped from gaining any further permissions – as will be the case for building houses that have been given permission too slowly, in order to keep the price of them high.
There was plenty else in the Government’s plans for us to welcome. It will not change the problems we’ve had of too many houses without the infrastructure to support them – and I will continue to campaign relentlessly on this. But it will shift the balance to building the right type of homes in the right places
