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Baroness Neville-Rolfe, chair of the new House of Lords committee on the built environment, has said her first inquiry will examine whether the government’s target for 300,000 homes per year is still relevant.
In an interview with Inside Housing, Baroness Neville-Rolfe said the committee is keen to hear evidence from across the housing and built environment sector on housing issues.
She said: “The government’s hoping to build 300,000 [homes], maybe that’s the right number, maybe that’s too low or too high. We’ve got to look at what councils are able to do…
“And I think we want evidence on what’s actually happening [with housing supply demand] as statistics can take time to work through and [see] what the new trends are.
“I think we are interested in place, where is the land, where is the lack of housing and has that changed at all with COVID or has it not?”
The committee will launch its first inquiry on Tuesday 6 July, which will focus on the demand for new housing in the UK and how to overcome barriers to meet it. It will also consider the key factors shaping the type of housing needed in the UK as well as the skills shortage in the construction industry.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe noted that the forthcoming Planning Bill and the effect it can have on planning departments will be scrutinised during the first inquiry.
The Conservative peer and former commercial secretary to the Treasury was a senior civil servant from the 1970s to the 1990s, before taking on a senior role at grocer Tesco.
She said: “People are rightly concerned about preserving the countryside and that’s why I think we are taking evidence on the new proposed design standards within the new Planning Bill, and that links with my own concerns over whether planning departments have the right people to set those important standards.”
The baroness said she hopes the committee’s work will influence debates in the Commons and the Lords on the forthcoming Building Safety Bill and Planning Bill.
She said the committee may seek evidence on whether new homes are built to last and considering the sustainability of delivery properties that can only be “guaranteed” to last 50 or 60 years.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe added: “It is a question we should be asking. I live in a Victorian house, which was built in 1814, it’s needed some work but they [the Victorians] built sustainably.
“In other areas we have housing built as recently as the 60s which is leaking and needs to be cleared and rebuilt. I think we are going to try and look into it and seek evidence from overseas as there are often good ideas [from abroad].”
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Amid the housing crisis and with increasing demands on local authorities, developers and housing associations to deliver more homes, the Inside Housing and Homes England Development Summit brings together the public and private sector to collaborate towards the effective delivery of homes across England.
This is not a conference. It is a business meeting of decision-makers on delivery and how to build more quality homes.
To find out more, click here.