HIPs may be history but other parts of the Conservative housing revolution appear to be on the backburner.
The detail of the coalition programme for government published today includes several parts of the Tory manifesto that seem to have been downgraded from commitments to options and several others that are not mentioned at all.
True, regional spatial strategies will be rapidly abolished and decision-making powers on housing and planning returned to local councils. True, these will include new powers to stop garden grabbing.
But that’s followed by: ‘In the longer term, we will radically reform the planning system to give neighbourhoods far more ability to determine the shape of the places in which their inhabitants live, based on the principles set out in the Conservative Party publication ‘Open Source Planning’.
Am I reading too much into that ‘in the longer term’ by making an assumption that this is not going to happen any time soon? Perhaps.
The Communities and Local Government section of the document does after all commit to a key part of Open Source Planning: ‘We will provide incentives for local authorities to deliver sustainable development, including for new homes and businesses.’
The document also states: ‘We will promote shared ownership schemes and help social tenants and others to own or part-own their home.’ tenants’.
Again, that was in the Conservative manifesto. But there is no mention of the more radical Tory policy of equity stakes for ‘good social tenants’ - or indeed of the right to move.
And then there is ‘We will review the effectiveness of the raising of the stamp duty threshold for first-time buyers’. Raising the threshold to £250,000 was the flagship Tory policy on home ownership - the party even accused Labour of stealing it - but now it is only being reviewed.
Elsewhere, there are commitments to create new trusts to make it simpler to build homes for local people, to review the ‘unfair housing revenue account’ (no timetable on that) and cut local government inspection. These were in both the Liberal Democrat and Conservative manifestos.
There are nods to the Lib Dem manifesto with plans for ‘a range of measures to bring empty homes back into use’, for Home on the Farm schemes to encourage farmers to convert existing buildings into homes and for extra protection against bailiffs and repossession.
However, Lib Dem commitments to a specific programme on empty homes, to devote more resources to housing over time and to create a new use class order for second homes do not appear.
Finally, conspiracy theorists may like to note that the Conservative commitment to ‘respect the tenures and rents of social housing’ does not appear either. Is it simply that a programme for government is a list of what it will change rather than leave unchanged - or is that a third shooter on that grassy knoll I see in the distance?
Have your say
You must sign in to make a comment