Councils under pressure to adopt updated housing plans

Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to declare the need for councils to update its housing systems, as the government prepares to publish its much awaited Housing Bill. The legislation requires councils to sell off expensive properties, in order to allow housing association tenants to buy their property.

Figures show that 82 per cent of councils have published local plans quantifying how many homes will be delivered over a set period. 65 per cent have fully adopted new housing schemes, while 20 per cent of councils have failed to provide updated plans all together.

Cameron maintains that publication and adoption of new housing plans are critical to his aim of achieving an extra one million homes in this parliament. If plans are not produced by 2017, the communities secretary will be empowered to require them to do so.

The government has also confirmed it will publish league tables, exhibiting the progress of local authorities and will set up a panel of experts to speed up the process of producing new housing plans. However, the government has not yet specified how plans will be drawn up in the absence of local council co-operation.

Under legislation, councils must produce an annual trajectory of how many homes they plan to build in their respective areas, which should be reviewed regularly and grant local government a voice in how and where new developments should be placed.

Downing Street claimed that the average number of homes planned by local authorities stood at 573 per year, before March 2012, and has now risen to 717.

It has become increasingly clear that housing is one of Cameron’s key priorities, however, the initiative has been known to raise tensions between central and local government.

The temporary rule introduced in May 2013 allowing disused offices to be converted into homes without need for planning permission is to become permanent. An estimated 4,000 conversions were given the go ahead between April 2014 and June 2015.

Cameron said: “A greater Britain must mean more families having the security and stability of owning a home of their own. My government will do everything it can to help people buy a place of their own – at the heart of this is our ambition to build one million new homes by 2020.

“Many areas are doing this already – and this is great – but we need a national crusade to get homes built and everyone must play their part.

“Councils have a key role to play in this by drawing up their own local plans for new homes by 2017. But if they fail to act, we’ll work with local people to produce a plan for them.”

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