Select committee: Built Environment Committee
Conclusion 131
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)
Neighbourhood planning is a right for communities to shape the way their local area is developed through the use of Neighbourhood Development Plans. Introduced through the Localism Act 2011, Neighbourhood Development Plans become part of the wider local plan and are used to determine the outcome of planning applications. The aim of Neighbourhood Plans is to allow communities to have more influence over their local area. These plans cannot influence or block development set out previously by the Local Plan. Neighbourhood Plans are led and produced by an authorised local community organisation such as a parish or town council, or a neighbourhood forum, and are usually subject to a local referendum.
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".