Select committee: Built Environment Committee
Conclusion 179
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)
Some councils which had an up-to-date plan thought they were unfairly penalised when they did not meet housing targets, as they did not have the appropriate tools to incentivise the build out of homes that have been approved. The Government monitors local authorities’ performance against housing targets over a three-year period through the Housing Delivery Test. Authorities that fall below 75% of their target are subject to the ‘Presumption in Favour of Sustainable Development’, which tilts the balance towards granting development. The Minister told us that the aim of the Housing Delivery Test is to “generate transparency about how local authorities are doing in encouraging development and make sure they are engaging with land promoters, developers and communities to get the right number of properties in their communities built.” 271 Cllr Dr Ed Turner said “if you do not have the mechanisms to ensure that build-out can happen, that is rather unfair. It is perfectly reasonable to hold local authorities to account when it comes to allocating land in a plan”, but it was not reasonable to hold the “local authority to account where units are not being built out, where you do not have any tools, or a very limited range of tools, to ensure that the development comes forward”. 272
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".