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Planning reform and grant funding pleas among South West coalition’s manifesto
An 11-strong coalition representing the South West of England’s biggest housing associations has urged the next government to tackle concerns around grant funding, planning and land banking.
Homes for the South West, whose members include LiveWest, Sovereign and Bromford, has today unveiled a general election manifesto setting out its priorities for tackling the housing crisis.
The group, which collectively owns more than 180,000 homes, called for “certainty” over grant funding and rent levels, which it said will help it commit to investment decisions.
Making grant funding available to all housing associations will “allow the sector to remain agile and make long decisions, providing stability in the pipeline”, it added.
The 11 landlords are currently committed to investing £2bn in building 16,000 homes over the next four years. However, the region needs to be building 15,000 affordable homes a year to alleviate the housing crisis, according to Homes for the South West.
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On planning, the group has proposed that sites with 100% affordable housing are fast-tracked through the system.
Applications should be “considered in eight weeks and automatically consented where the statutory periods are missed”, the group’s manifesto said. It also called for minimum housing densities “in areas where there is an acute shortage of land”.
Homes for the South West, whose chair is Curo boss Victor da Cunha, also said that land banking is stifling the building of affordable housing. The government should create incentives for councils to offer public land to developers of affordable housing, the group said.
“The current model for development is geared towards those who can acquire land as the highest bidder, which favours large developers prepared to land bank,” the manifesto said.
It added: “Increasing the supply of land for development would reduce the upward pressure on land values, curtail discussions about the viability of development programmes and maintain the level of affordable housing to be delivered.”
Housing associations are still striking deals with the big house builders. LiveWest has agreed with Bovis Homes to develop 2,000 homes in the South West.
The Conservative manifesto, launched yesterday, said it will aim to build “at least” a million new homes “of all tenures” over the next five years, which is a downgrade on its pledge to be building 300,000 new dwellings a year by the mid-2020s.
However the party said it will alter planning rules to ensure that the infrastructure is in place first before new developments go ahead. A Boris Johnson administration would also commit to renewing the Affordable Homes Programme, which it claimed would “support the delivery of hundreds of thousands of affordable homes”.
Labour has pledged to spend £75bn on building 150,000 social homes over the next five years, with two-thirds of those by councils and the rest through through housing associations.
The party has vowed that if it is elected, it will set up a new trust with “powers to buy land more cheaply for low-cost housing”. Labour said it will also introduce “use it or lose it” taxes on stalled housing developments.
