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Morning Briefing: are Tory whips trying to scupper planning rule changes?

The question of what housing measures could, or should, be in the Budget, dominates our Morning Briefing today

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Whips reportedly trying to prevent Budget planning rule changes #ukhousing

Commentators call for radical housing Budget measures #ukhousing

In the news

Another morning and another flurry of stories about the Budget and what it could, or should, mean for housing.

The Times has perhaps the most interesting report.

The newspaper reports that Conservative Party whips are encouraging MPs to “make it known that liberalising the planning regulations would be a divisive move”.


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It says whips have drawn up a list of opponents to show to the Treasury in an attempt to stop Philip Hammond announcing polices, including possible planning rule changes, that could lead to a rebellion against the government.

The report says that measures to boost housebuilding will be a “key part of tomorrow’s Budget” but a reluctance to borrow and nervousness about building on the green belt have constrained options. Planning rule changes are therefore one of the “biggest mysteries” of the Budget.

Elsewhere, economist and journalist Liam Halligan, writing in The Sun, is calling for “radical solutions” on housing to be included in the Budget.

He suggests the government directly funds councils and housing associations to build homes for sub-market rent. He suggests “punitive taxes” on house builders if homes are not built or marketed within a specific timeframe.

He also says the government could buy land, grant itself planning permission and sell it for development, and then reuse the planning gain (the increase in value to the land because it has permission) to invest in infrastructure.

For Sam Bowman, another distinguished economist writing in The Telegraph, housing is Mr Hammond’s “master key”, if he can fix it “all else will follow”.

We are reporting this morning that housing associations have pitched an idea for a £100bn National Housing Fund to the prime minister, although there is nothing to suggest this is being considered as a Budget measure.

The Guardian has a lengthy piece on its website about benefit claimants who have had problems with the new Universal Credit system, or “Universal Credit catastrophe”, as the newspaper refers to it.

On social media

Tomorrow’s Budget has also got the housing sector’s leaders talking on Twitter:

What’s on

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