WHY WE NEED A FAIR DEAL FOR HOUSING AND COMMUNITIES
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by danielbarker on 5 March, 2018
I have heard with incredulity over the past 24 hours of Mrs May’s answer to the housing crisis. Basically she’s going to ‘get tough’ with local planning authorities. If the housing crisis was caused by local planning authorities, then that would be a good idea…..but it wasn’t!
Read again the article on this subject published just last week, which includes a more sensible approach to solving the housing crisis……………
‘The backlog of homes that have been given planning permission but are still waiting to be built has increased by almost 16% in the last year, new analysis has revealed today.
The Local Government Association (LGA) has found that in 2015/16, the number of homes with unimplemented planning permissions in England and Wales has risen to 423,544.
The figures show developers are also taking eight months longer to build new homes, up from 32 months in 2013/14 to 40 months in 2015/16.
However, the research found the planning system is not a barrier to building as councils are approving nine in every 10 planning applications.
The LGA is calling for councils to purchase land where homes remain unbuilt and charge developers full council tax for every unbuilt development.
‘These figures prove that the planning system is not a barrier to house building. In fact the opposite is true,’ said cllr Martin Tett, LGA housing spokesman. ‘In the last year, councils and their communities granted twice as many planning permissions as the number of new homes that were completed.
‘No-one can live in a planning permission. Councils need greater powers to act where housebuilding has stalled.
‘To tackle the new homes backlog and to get the country building again, councils also need the freedom to borrow and invest in desperately-needed new homes, as recognised by the influential Treasury Select Committee last month.’
I’m sorry, but on this issue as on many others, this Tory administration hasn’t got a clue………….or have they?
Maybe this policy announcement has nothing to do with solving the housing crisis and everything to do with politics. They want to appear to be doing something, but they don’t want to appear to be upsetting their friends the developers, who know that if they sit on their planning permissions long enough, the housing market will pick up and they will make more money. No, much better to place the blame unfairly but squarely on local councils. Now it all makes sense…………………..
Content published and promoted by Roy Sheward on behalf of Dan Barker (Liberal Democrats) all at 144 Redhouse Lane, Walsall, WS5 0DB
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