Local Plans must be delivered

“Councils must produce local plans for new homes in their area by 2017 – or the government will ensure, in consultation with local people, those plans are produced for them.”

This is the latest push from David Cameron to ensure that the one million homes target will be reached.

The Prime Minister has today made it very clear that he expects all Councils to create and deliver local plans, to achieve his build target. These new proposals have been unveiled ahead of the publication of the Housing Bill and just days after an historic agreement was reached to extend the Right to Buy scheme.

While 82% of councils have published local plans – which should set out how many homes they plan to deliver over a set period – only 65% have fully adopted them, and there are still almost 20% of councils that do not have an up to date plan at all.

The new policy will ensure that these plans are put in place, with the Government to produce them if the Council fails to.

The Housing Bill spells out a series of further proposals to boost homebuilding and home ownership, including:

• new affordable Starter Homes – a new legal duty will be placed on councils to guarantee the delivery of Starter Homes on all reasonably sized new development sites, and to promote the scheme to first-time buyers in their area. The government is also announcing today that local authorities will be able to bid for a share of a £10M Starter Homes fund – part of a £36M package to accelerate the delivery of starter homes – by helping councils prepare brownfield sites that would otherwise not be built for starter homes.
• automatic planning permission in principle on brownfield sites – to build as many homes as possible while protecting the green belt
• planning reforms to support small builders – placing a new duty on councils to help allocate land to people who want to build their own home
• selling off high value vacant assets – which will be reinvested in building new affordable homes

Prime Minister David Cameron said: “A Greater Britain must mean more families having the security and stability of owning a home of their own. My government will do everything it can to help people buy a place of their own – at the heart of this is our ambition to build one million new homes by 2020.”

Communities Secretary Greg Clark said: “Our homes don’t just shelter us, they shape us – which is why most people want to own a home of their own.

“During the last five years we’ve brought housebuilding back from the brink, from its lowest levels since the 1920s, by reforming the planning system so we now have over 240,000 homes receiving permission.

“To maintain that momentum we all need to play our part and I’m determined to ensure that local as well as central government take the steps needed to deliver the homes this country needs.”

 

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