10-point Plan Launched for Government to Tackle Housing Crisis
The Home Builders Federation (HBF) has released a 10-point plan for practical solutions for the UK Government to remove barriers to building and start providing the nation with much-needed homes.
Its international audit has revealed that England is the hardest place in the developed world to find a home, with the lowest rates of vacant dwellings per member of the population of all OECD nations.
As a result, people across the country are struggling to find homes to buy or rent, and the scarcity of available properties has led to significant price increases.
The HBF has stated that politicians have the power to solve this crisis: “Steps can and should be taken now to start tackling this issue and help people find much-needed homes.”
Local authorities need to have up-to-date plans to meet housing demand
Drawing on its network of home builders, the HBF has proposed 10 practical asks that can be implemented at speed to ensure more people can find a decent place to live.
The first of the 10 proposed policies include using the increases in planning fees to sufficiently resource planning departments, which have seen real terms funding cut by over half since 2010.
It states that although there is funding being implemented, more needs to be done: “The £24 million recently announced to scale up local planning capacity and the £65 million announced at the last spending review are a good start, but real terms funding of planning departments have fallen by more than 50 per cent since 2010.”
The Royal Town Planning Institute estimates that £500 million will be required over four years to address significant delays in housing policy.
Following this, the HBF has outlined that to tackle the current housing crisis, local authorities have to have up-to-date local plans that meet local housing needs by recognising the existence of a local plan in the funding formula for local government grants.
Also, it recommends that the government works with industry to revise rules around nutrient neutrality. This is because around 145,000 new homes are currently blocked by Natural England’s nutrient neutrality mitigation measures. The contribution of developers to the issue is marginal yet they are being disproportionately impacted.
In the short term, the HBF has revealed that collaboration is imperative: “The government must work with industry to identify some quick and effective actions to get mitigation schemes working effectively. This must include a sensible review of Natural England’s nutrient mitigation calculator to reflect the minor additional nutrients impact deriving from households.”
The UK Government need to address the barriers impacting housing supply today
Other practical asks include:
- Make the Construction Industry Training Board fit for purpose by reforming the CITB levy to include key occupations for the industry
- Focus on post-16 education on employers’ needs
- Introduce a presumption in favour of development on small sites of up to 25 homes on brownfield land as part of the planned changes to the National Planning Policy Framework.
- Reform the Standard Method to ensure that new housing is delivered proportionally across the whole country
- Strengthen the statutory duty on local planning decision-makers to accord special attention to the need to plan for housing for older people in their housing needs assessments
- Abolish stamp duty for all purchases of homes with an EPC rating of B or above
- Facilitate a roundtable with government, industry, and lenders to explore the possible expansion of green/energy-efficient mortgages.
Stewart Baseley, Executive Chairman of the Home Builders Federation explained that the UK Government must focus on increasing housing supply: “Governments of all colours over decades have failed to tackle systemic issues in our housing and planning system which have led to England becoming the hardest place in the developed world to find a home.
“The King’s Speech represented another missed opportunity to increase housing supply in this country, and nothing to address the disproportionate burden of nutrient neutrality placed on new build homes.”
Continuing, Stewart added that this change can’t just happen overnight: “Major legislative change, while needed, would take time to come into effect.
“Given the urgency of country’s housing crisis we’ve laid out practical steps Ministers can and should implement now to address the barriers impacting housing supply and make sure more people have access to decent homes.”
The HBF’s plan shows how properly resourcing local authority planning departments, revising the rules around nutrient neutrality, and abolishing stamp duty on more energy-efficient homes could unlock development.
If the 10-point plan is implemented, it would help to make a decisive contribution to overcoming systemic issues facing the housing sector and give people all over the country a chance to find a good quality, affordable home.
