A report provided an assessment of the environmental, social, and economic impacts of housing growth scenarios in England.
Source: A Sustainability Impact Study of Additional Housing Scenarios in England, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (0870 1226 236)
Links: Report
Date: 2005-Dec
The government published (alongside the Pre-Budget Report) its response to the Barker Review of Housing Supply. It said that it was proposing a package of measures to reform the planning system and deliver increased investment in infrastructure to support sustainable housing growth.
Source: The Government s Response to Kate Barker s Review of Housing Supply, HM Treasury (020 7270 4558) and Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
Links: Report | Supporting paper | HMT press release | ODPM press release | Shelter press release | CPRE press release | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Dec
An audit report said that most local authorities believed that they would not meet the need for affordable housing in the three years 2004-2006.
Source: Building More Affordable Homes: Improving the delivery of affordable housing in areas of high demand, HC 459 (Session 2005-06), National Audit Office and Audit Commission, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | NAO press release
Date: 2005-Dec
An audit report highlighted the potential for modern methods of construction to provide good quality homes quickly and efficiently.
Source: Using Modern Methods of Construction to Build Homes More Quickly and Efficiently, National Audit Office (020 7798 7400)
Links: Report | NAO press release
Date: 2005-Nov
An article examined the economics underlying the Barker Review, concentrating on an analysis of supply elasticities and the required increases in construction to meet price targets. Under some assumptions, the Barker analysis implied that housing construction in England needed to be approximately doubled in order to bring house price inflation down to European levels.
Source: Geoffrey Meen, 'On the economics of the Barker Review of housing supply', Housing Studies, Volume 20 Number 6
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Nov
An article examined the process of arriving at housing allocation figures for development planning in England. It said that excessive central intervention ran contrary to the government's own philosophy for planning for housing.
Source: Nick Gallent, 'Regional housing figures in England: Policy, Politics and Ownership', Housing Studies, Volume 20 Number 6
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Nov
An article examined measures of recent and prospective need for additional affordable housing provision in England.
Source: Glen Bramley and Noah Kofi Karley, 'How much extra affordable housing is needed in England?', Housing Studies, Volume 20 Number 5
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Oct
A report examined the scope for community land trusts to counter the problem of high land values preventing access to affordable housing. Experience showed that they could not only guarantee long-term affordability, but also act as a successful means of community empowerment by giving people collective control of land and property assets within their neighbourhoods.
Source: Diane Diacon, Richard Clarke and Silvia Guimar es, Redefining the Commons: Locking in value through community land trusts, Building and Social Housing Foundation (01530 510444)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2005-Oct
A report said that the government needed to deliver a total of 60,000 extra social rented homes to help ensure that more than 150,000 children were lifted out of bad housing by 2011.
Source: Marc Francis, Building Hope: The case for more homes now, Shelter (020 7505 4699)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary
Date: 2005-Sep
A think-tank report said that the British culture of centrally-planned development - a system established by the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act and still embraced by politicians of all parties - was responsible for a serious shortage of affordable, desirable, high-quality housing.
Source: Alan Evans and Oliver Hartwich, Unaffordable Housing: Fables and myths, Policy Exchange (020 7340 2650)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2005-Jul
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on housing pathfinders in low-demand areas.
Source: The Government?s Response to the ODPM: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Select Committee?s Eighth Report on Empty Homes and Low Demand Pathfinders, Cm 6651, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response (pdf) | MPs report
Date: 2005-Jul
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on the environmental aspects of its strategy for increasing housing supply.
Source: Government Response to the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee Report Housing: Building a Sustainable Future, Cm 6575, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response (pdf) | MPs report
Date: 2005-May
A pamphlet set out government policies for increasing home ownership by 1 million over 5 years. It proposed an extension of shared equity schemes, and said that government land would be released for the construction of affordable housing. It emphasized the importance of creating mixed communities.
Source: Extending Home Ownership, HM Treasury (020 7270 4558) and Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
Links: Pamphlet (pdf) | CIH press release | NHF press release | Shelter press release | CPRE press release | Guardian report
Date: 2005-May
A think-tank report said that increasing housing supply in the south east region of England was not the way to make homes more affordable.
Source: Anthony Vigor and Peter Robinson, Meeting Housing Need in the South East, Institute for Public Policy Research, available from Central Books (0845 458 9911)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2005-Apr
The results were published from a survey of local authorities on the housing and planning implications of the government's sustainable communities plan (launched in 2003). It said that increasing the supply of affordable housing remained the most important issue for local authorities; that the reduction in capital funding for housing was likely to have major implications for local authorities in meeting local demand for housing; and that there was growing evidence of closer joint working between housing and planning departments.
Source: Communities Plan: Housing and planning implications, Local Government Association (020 7664 3000)
Links: Summary (pdf)
Date: 2005-Apr
A report by a committee of MPs expressed concern that the government did not have clear objectives for its housing market renewal programme, and was not collecting comparable data to determine whether its aim to eradicate the problems caused by low-demand housing by 2020 would be achieved.
Source: Empty Homes and Low-demand Pathfinders, Eighth Report (Session 2004-05), HC 295, House of Commons Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | CPRE press release | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Apr
A report said that an excessive focus on building smaller homes could precipitate a housing crisis in the future.
Source: Dave King and Janet Hayden, Room to Move?: Household formation, tenure and housing consumption, Population and Housing Research Group/Anglia Polytechnic University (01245 357870)
Links: Report (pdf) | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Mar
An audit report said that nine housing pathfinder projects (set up in the North and Midlands regions) needed to develop a stronger, more independent approach if they were to achieve long-term success.
Source: Housing Market Renewal, Audit Commission (0800 502030)
Links: Report | Audit Commission press release
Date: 2005-Feb
A report said that the government s housing renewal programmes, affecting around one million homes, should take account of the unique social and architectural history of each place, of what local people valued, and of the qualities which once made it a successful community.
Source: Low Demand Housing and the Historic Environment, English Heritage (0870 333 1181)
Links: Report (pdf) | English Heritage press release
Date: 2005-Jan
Countryside campaigners said that the government's plans for a 'step change' in the building of homes for sale threatened severe, additional environmental damage. Instead, the government should focus on boosting the building of subsidized homes for people who had long been unable to afford market prices.
Source: Building on Barker, Campaign to Protect Rural England (020 7981 2800)
Links: Report (pdf) | CPRE press release
Date: 2005-Jan
A report by a committee of MPs said that the environmental impacts of the proposed increase in housebuilding deserved much greater consideration than they had yet received from government. There was a serious risk that, as matters stood, the principal beneficiaries of housing growth would be property development companies, while the principal loser would be the environment.
Source: Housing: Building a Sustainable Future, First Report (Session 2004-05), HC 135, House of Commons Environmental Audit Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | CPRE press release | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Jan
