Housing changes give hopeful signals to councils and communities

July 24, 2007

Yvette Cooper’s announcements on housing policy reform have been welcomed as “a positive step towards localism”. Commenting on today’s publication of the Housing Green Paper, New Local Government Network Director Chris Leslie said:

“Finance has always been the key to the creation of more affordable housing, and so the suggestion that at long last local authorities will have some leeway to use their rental income and capital receipts to build new stock is a breath of fresh air. The Government is placing stringent tests in order to access these arrangements, but there should soon be a real incentive for councils to act creatively with their own land and revenue streams.

“The new Housing & Planning Development Grant offers an incentive-based route to attracting councils towards a pro-housing stance, which is far preferable than a central government dictat. We now need to know just how significant this incentive will be, in order to judge how far some councils will be able to resist it.

“Allowing councils to establish ‘Local Housing Companies’ in joint venture with English Partnerships and the private sector is a clever way to use existing council assets and also spread the risk of new development. We urge the Government to make sure that the new homes agency proactively guides councils in how these new corporate vehicles can get up and running soon.

“Regional policy is also crucial and the new Single Regional Strategies should tie in more players from across the public sector. Great care needs to be taken in the forthcoming consultation to ensure that local authority leaders have a transparent method for signing-off the regional planning components of these powerful documents.

“It is time for councils to modernise their role in the housing market, recognising that pure tenancy is only one option the public want. Shared ownership and key worker support are ideas that reflect today’s world and clever local authorities should take the new opportunities from this Green Paper and rise to the challenge.”


Explore More