Posted 30.01.14
An independent and wide-ranging review into how more social homes can be built has been launched by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, and the Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles.
The review will be led by Natalie Elphicke, Chair of Million Homes, Million Lives, and Keith House, Leader of Eastleigh Borough Council.
It will assess if councils are making sufficient use of their existing powers and flexibilities to deliver new social housing. For instance, councils could use their property portfolio more effectively to finance housebuilding by selling expensive vacant properties and using the receipts to build new affordable homes.
The review will also consider how councils can work more closely with housing associations, housebuilders and businesses to build more new homes.
The Chairs of the review will also ensure that it gives adequate consideration to new freedoms and flexibilities which could be given to councils to deliver new social housing.
Responding to the announcement of the review, Gavin Smart, director of policy and practice at the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), said:
"We are in the grip of a housing crisis, with millions of people being denied access to a decent home at a price they can afford.
"Given the scale of that crisis, a review of the role councils can play in boosting the number of homes being built is timely - we look forward to hearing more details of the review and making a contribution.
"We think local authorities should be allowed to borrow more so they can build more homes - we were pleased to see the Chancellor acknowledging this principle in last year's autumn statement, but the steps announced were far too modest.
"Increasing local authority borrowing caps by £7 billion, rather than £300 million, would allow councils to build 75,000 new homes over five years, creating 23,500 jobs and creating £5.6 billion of economic activity."
Posted 02.01.14
The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) will bring forward enough public land by March 2015 to support delivery of over 2,000 more homes than originally anticipated, according to new figures published shortly before Christmas.
The Agency's Land Development and Disposal Plan (LDDP) sets out how the HCA will use its experience of managing large portfolios of land and assets to potentially bring a potential over 200 sites to market between now and 31 March 2015, of which around 480 ha is for residential and around 900 ha is for commercial and other uses.
Sites in the LDDP will build on the housing capacity of those already disposed, bringing the HCA's contribution to Government's commitment to dispose of enough land with capacity for 100,000 homes, to 16,209; up from 14,000 in the last LDDP published in June 2013.
The LDDP also includes for the first time details of sites newly acquired from central government departments and their bodies, including the Department of Health, the Ministry of Justice and the British Rail Residuary Board. The 19 newly acquired sites alone have capacity to support over 2,000 new homes, subject to planning.
A second tranche of acquisitions - predominantly NHS sites - which could have capacity to support up to 800 further new homes, will be announced in due course and it is likely that the HCA's housing capacity target will increase further as these sites are acquired.
Click here to access the Homes and Communities Agency's Land Development and Disposal Plan 2013/14 Update in full.
Who currently holds the Labour Party post of Shadow Minister for Housing?
1 point.
Emma Reynolds currently holds the Labour Party post of Shadow Minister for Housing.
