Tory plans ‘threaten affordable housing’
Housing minister John Healey has slammed Conservative plans to reform the planning system and replace it with a new framework which allows local authorities to set their own housing targets.
The Tories published their planning green paper yesterday, which includes ideas such as abolishing housing targets set by regional assemblies and replacing them with a system of financial incentives for local councils to build.
Among the changes are plans to remove the Infrastructure Planning Commission, instead developing a national planning framework aimed at preventing unsustainable urban sprawl.
However Mr Healey warned the green paper would block investment and wreck the country’s recovery.
He said: ‘It is also clear from this document that the Tories don’t care about building the affordable homes Britain needs, with councils being given free reign to abandon any such commitments and shatter the dreams and aspirations of young families in need.’
The National Housing Federation welcomed parts of the paper that place a greater emphasis on sustainable development and community influence, but warned that the current proposals pose too great a risk to the delivery of affordable housing.
It said plans to scrap Section 106 agreements could lead to a reduction of up to 40 per cent in the number of affordable homes built each year. The NHF is concerned alternative incentives delivered through the council tax system may not prove sufficient.
Federation chief executive David Orr said: ‘The proposal to scrap Section 106 and replace it with a tariff system requires a leap of faith that the delivery of new homes will be maintained.
‘If a new planning system operates as the Conservatives envisage, all will be well; if it doesn’t, we could lose up to 64,000 new affordable homes over three years.’
Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation, noted that while there were some excellent ideas in the paper plans to allow third party right of appeals would be a ‘recipe for chaos’.
‘It would clog up the system and undermine everything the Tories have said about being pro-development,’ she said.
Ms Peace welcomed the commitment to take forward plans to simplify the planning system.
She said: ‘The key to making any new proposals work will be an ongoing, direct conversation with the industry to ensure that what looks good to voters is truly workable in the real, post-election world.’
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Readers' comments (1)
Chris Carr | 23/02/2010 10:11 pm
Anything that brings the death of 200 page Section 106 Agreements with overly prescriptive clauses about managing affordable housing will be a good thing.
Just because we do away with S106 doesn't mean we'll see less affordable housing, local authorities no the importance of building affordable housing and will not let developers off the hook easily.
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