Monday, 5 March 2018 ()
Theresa May's new warning to developers that they could be punished for not building enough houses has already received criticism from members of her own party.The Prime Minister will today set out plans to enable the government to give councils powers to refuse further planning permission if their build-out rate is not fast enough. May will stop short of saying that developers should be allowed to build on green belt land, although housing and communities secretary Sajid Javid has promised to get tough on “nimby” councils.
But her speech, which will argue that “the gap between permissions granted and homes built is still too large", is already attracting flack from some within her own party.
The Conservative peer and chair of the Local Government Association (LGA) Lord Porter tweeted: "If we want more houses, we have to build them, not plan them. If we want cheaper homes, we have to build them, not plan them. MHCLG need to push back against HMT or the nonsense will go on and nothing will change. Less homes built next year than there were this year."
He added: "Why not let councils build so many houses they don't have to ration them just for the poorest in our society. Then Key workers can have affordable housing where ever they live, until they can afford to buy."
LGA issued a statement on Porter's behalf, noting that in the last year councils and their communities had granted nearly twice as many planning permissions 0 321,000 - as the number of new homes that were completed - 183,000.
Instead of "stripping councils of their rights to decide where homes are built is unhelpful and misguided," government should give councils the right to borrow more cash.
“Ultimately, the private sector will never build enough of the homes the country needs on its own. The government must back the widespread calls, including from the Treasury Select Committee, for council borrowing and investment freedoms to spark a renaissance in house building by local government,” Porter said.
His comments have received the backing of Tory MP Nick Boles, who has been banging the drum for housing reform over recent months.
This morning he tweeted: "We cannot wait for our dysfunctional house-building industry to build the homes we need".
Of Javid's reforms, revealed over the weekend, he added: "His garden towns won't get built without reform of compulsory purchase laws. And we need government to build more houses itself."
