Select committee: Built Environment Committee

Conclusion 86

1st Report - Meeting housing demand Published 10 Jan 2022
Conclusion (the committee's words)
On the other hand, the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research said that while “Older households are often accused of ‘hoarding’ space that could be used for families”, “this does not reflect the multiple uses of space amongst older people, many of whom now work into retirement, care for grandchildren, and house multiple generations of their families at various points.” 157

From: Built Environment Committee, 1st Report - Meeting housing demand, 10 January 2022

Government response

The government responded to the whole report on 28 March 2022 (deadline 10 March 2022).

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The Government welcomes the Committee's report and says it is "taking action on a number of the issues identified", agreeing with some recommendations while disagreeing with others, including on home ownership schemes and the Apprenticeship Levy.

  • It "disagrees with the report's assessment that homeownership schemes do not provide good value for money", citing independent evaluations and its own evaluation of Help to Buy.
  • On older people's housing, it is launching a new taskforce "this year", chaired by the Minister for Housing, to look at better choice, quality and security of housing.
  • It does "not intend to set out a proportion" of Affordable Homes Programme funding for social housing, though "around half" of the affordable homes are to be for social and affordable rent.
  • On the Apprenticeship Levy it says it has "no plans to review" it. On planning fees it is "exploring options" to increase them, and on local plans it will make an announcement "in due course".

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error