Select committee: Built Environment Committee
Conclusion 119
1st Report - Meeting housing demand
Published 10 Jan 2022
Built Environment Committee Meeting the UK’s housing demand All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Under the current planning system, local planning authorities are required by the National Planning Policy Framework to prepare a local plan for their area. This may involve a single local authority preparing a local plan for its own area or a group of local authorities working together to prepare a local plan for their combined areas. The local plan guides decisions on future development proposals. Local plans set out a long-term framework for the future development of an area. They define: the priorities for an area, strategic policies, housing needs, and land allocations, amongst other areas. The National Planning Policy Framework states that if a plan is absent or out of date, a ‘presumption of favour of sustainable development’ is introduced, which reduces councils’ say over individual developments. Local plans are examined by the Planning Inspectorate to assess whether they have been prepared in accordance with various duties.
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".