Recommendation 21

HM Government Accepted

We agree, and the government is on track to meet its manifesto commitment to deliver one million homes over this Parliament. Reaching this target would represent another important milestone in the government’s already successful housebuilding strategy: since 2010, over 2.2 million additional homes have been delivered in England, and the three highest annual rates of housing supply in 30 years have all come since 2018. Earlier this year, the Secretary of State set out more detail on the government’s ongoing commitment to housing supply and regeneration through the publication of a long-term plan for housing. The plan builds on the existing commitment to deliver one million new homes by the end of this Parliament outlined above, while maintaining the protections that matter most to local people. The plan set out a range of measures including: • Launching a consultation on new and amended permitted development rights, to make it easier to change use of more space in vacant shops, offices and restaurants etc, and space above shops and other high street uses to residential. • Taking steps to unblock the bottlenecks in the planning system that are choking and slowing down development, and stopping growth and investment by: Ȥ Launching a new £24 million Planning Skills Delivery Fund to clear planning backlogs and get the right skills in place. Ȥ Establishing a new “super-squad” team of leading planners and other experts charged with working across the planning system to unblock major housing developments, underpinned by £13.5 million in funding. • Being clear that development should proceed on sites that are adopted in a local plan with full input from the local community unless there are strong reasons why it cannot. • Better use should be made of small pockets of brownfield land by being more permissive, so more homes can be built more quickly, where and how it makes sense, giving more confidence and certainty to SME builders. Increasing the provision of affordable and social homes is a key part of the government’s plan to build more homes. Our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme will deliver thousands of affordable homes for both rent and to buy right across the country. The government recognises the need for Social Rent homes to support functioning communities, with the right homes in the right places supporting everyone, regardless of one’s ability to obtain a home at market rates. This is why social rent homes were brought into the scope of the Affordable Homes Programme in 2018. Additionally, the government’s Levelling Up White Paper committed to increasing the supply of social rented homes and in response, a significant number of the homes delivered through our Affordable Homes Programme will be for social rent. The government is working with its delivery agencies to confirm the 2021 - 26 Programme’s capacity to deliver as part of a review of programme commitments in light of economic challenges for social housing developers. The government is also introducing a new Infrastructure Levy through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, which is committed to delivering at least as much affordable housing as the existing system of developer contributions. The government also welcomes new institutional investment in the private rented sector and has made a number of interventions to support the Build to Rent sector. Build to Rent boosts housing supply, diversifies the private rental sector, and increases quality and choice for renters in cities and towns across England. We have revised the National Planning Policy Framework and issued a chapter of planning guidance to support the delivery of more Build to Rent homes, including affordable rental homes.