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Councils should have more powers to borrow and build, say Lords
Councils should be given more borrowing freedom and more powers to build on public land, a House of Lords committee has said.
In a landmark report, the House of Lords Committee on Intergenerational Fairness and Provision made recommendations to rebalance society and promote equality.
A major chunk of the report focused on housing, with the committee recommending action “to substantially increase the supply of social housing”.
It added: “One means of doing this is to ease the ability of local authorities to borrow to fund housebuilding. This lack of action on housing is primarily hurting younger generations.
“However, younger generations can be helped by building more housing which is accessible and adaptable for older generations as part of a wider increase in supply.”
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The report noted that the government has already scrapped the cap on the amount councils can borrow against their Housing Revenue Accounts. However, it said that because budgets have been stripped back, the report said that this will not be enough to get councils building again.
Later in its report, the committee called for the government to take action on land. It argued that there should be a central government capability “to understand fully what land public bodies own, how public sector bodies use that land and where it can be disposed of”.
This was prompted by evidence taken from housing minister Kit Malthouse, who told the committee in December: “As far as I am aware, all departments should have a list of all the land that they own or they have access to or is owned by subsidiaries or whatever it might be.
“I cannot speak for all departments as to whether it is completely accurate or not. I am sorry.”
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The committee also recommended that local authorities should be given “a presumption to develop on land owned by public sector bodies”.
According to the report, the committee had made the recommendations to Mr Malthouse, who suggested a “negotiated outcome is likely to be more productive”. The report, however, noted that this has not produced “stellar results to date” and concluded that more radical solutions are needed.
Responding to the report, Michael Voges, executive director of Associated Retirement Community Operators, said: “The best way to free up larger houses for younger generations is to provide specialist housing with care for older people.”
