14 COMMENT THE SOCIAL NETWORK
THE ROADTO ‘LEVELLING UP’
PatrickMooney, editor of Housing,Management & Maintenance
PatrickMooney says that the number of newhomes needed across the North andMidlands to deliver the Government’s ‘levelling up’agenda runs to hundreds of thousands, every year.
June, when the Lib Dems surprisingly overturned a huge Conservative majority, with HS2 and a more permissive approach towards housebuilding in affluent areas of the South East being blamed in equal measure. Responding to suggestions that his party's housebuilding plans had led to the by-election defeat, the Prime Minister said there had been a "wilful misunderstanding about the planning reforms" adding that the Government wanted to develop brownfield sites rather than "build all over the countryside." Three months later we saw a cabinet reshuf-
T
AMONG THOSE HOPINGTO INFLUENCE GOVE IS THE LGAWHICH REPRESENTS OVER 320 COUNCILS ACROSS ENGLAND
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fle with Michael Gove replacing Robert Jenrick as Housing Secretary, accompanied by lots of briefing that the long awaited planning reforms to deliver a step change in housebuild- ing were being reviewed. Protests from Conservative MPs in the Home Counties had clearly hit the mark despite Boris Johnson’s protests to the contrary. Since then the housing sector has been patiently waiting to see the details of what has changed and what has not. This is of huge importance given that we are only a few years away from the Government’s target date for delivering 300,000 new homes a year. There is a huge amount of lobbying going on right now, despite the public furore over the work of lobbyists and payments to MPs. Among those hoping to influence Michael
Gove is the Local Government Association which represents over 320 councils across England. It is calling for local authorities to be given the powers and funding to build as many as 100,000 new social homes for rent each year. The LGA says this would not only deliver a third of the Government’s annual housing target, but it would also shorten council housing waiting lists, reduce homelessness and cut carbon emissions, while delivering a £24.5bn boost to the economy over the next 30 years.
he Government’s housebuilding policies have been ‘on hold’ ever since the Chesham and Amersham by-election in
WAITING LISTS COULD DOUBLE To back up its case, the LGA is warning Ministers that one in 10 households currently in need of housing are stuck on councils’ waiting lists for over five years as a result of the chronic shortage of affordable homes. It also claims that as a result of the pandemic, council housing waiting lists could almost double next year to as many as 2.1 million households, due to the impact of Covid-related support schemes winding down, and a poten- tial increase in homelessness. Councillor David Renard, the LGA’s housing spokesman, commented: “Now is the time to reverse the decline in council housing over the past few decades. The benefits are clear – a programme of 100,000 social homes a year would shorten council housing waiting lists, reduce homelessness and cut carbon emissions, while delivering a multi-billion pound long- term boost to the economy.” The LGA claims the delivery of 100,000 new
social homes a year would also bring a raft of significant environmental benefits that would support the country’s net zero ambitions. For instance a family moving from an old, poorly insulated and fossil-fuel heated home into a modern home with a heat pump could save up to £500 a year. For 1.6 million households, it says social rent
is the most appropriate form of housing, as many of these families are either not ready or choose not to buy, while social housing gives these families the security and stability of a decent home. They also have a route into owning their own home through the Right to Buy, if and when they are ready to commit to a property purchase. Meanwhile as civil servants work through
the final changes to the draft planning reforms, some of the leading figures in UK housing have advised Ministers that a “radical rethink” on housing delivery is needed if the Government is to succeed in levelling up the country. They point towards new research which reveals that over the next 20 years as many as 140,000
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