Select committee: Built Environment Committee

Conclusion 180

1st Report - Meeting housing demand Published 10 Jan 2022
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The Local Government Association set out proposals to help councils encourage faster build out rates: a ‘stalled sites’ council tax premium for developers for sites that are not built out after three years a streamlined compulsory purchase process to acquire (at pre-uplift value) stalled sites or sites where developers do not build out to agreed rates powers to direct diversification of housing on sites.

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