The report of an independent review examined the capability of the housebuilding industry to deliver the 3 million new homes required by 2020 under government plans. It said that the target was achievable: but that the challenge would be to deliver homes where they were needed, at an affordable price, and at the same time meet zero-carbon targets.
Source: The Callcutt Review of Housebuilding Delivery, Department for Communities and Local Government (0870 1226 236)
Links: Report | Summary | Review press release | DCLG press release | RTPI press release | NHF press release | BPF press release | English Partnerships press release
Date: 2007-Nov
A report (by an official advisory body) said that more houses needed to be built in England on top of the government's pledge of an extra 3 million homes by 2020, in order to meet demand and prevent further falls in affordability. Average house prices were more than 7 times average salaries, and were set to exceed 9 times by 2026 on existing trends.
Source: Developing a Target Range for the Supply of New Homes Across England, National Housing and Planning Advice Unit (023 9295 8152)
Links: Report | NHPAU press release | Shelter press release | NHF press release | CPRE press release | Liberal Democrats press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Telegraph report | FT report
Date: 2007-Oct
The government published the results of consultation on the housing and planning delivery grant (announced as part of the housing Green Paper in July 2007). The responses were 'mixed'. There was neither outright overall support nor opposition to any of the elements set out: but there was general recognition that a move away from – but building on the success of the planning delivery grant – was appropriate, so long as some form of funding for planning departments continued.
Source: Housing & Planning Delivery Grant: Summary of Responses, Department for Communities and Local Government (0870 1226 236)
Links: Consultation responses
Date: 2007-Oct
The government began consultation on the mechanism for allocating the housing and planning delivery grant, totalling £510 million over the period 2008-2011. The proposed grant would offer extra funding for councils that identified at least five years-worth of good sites ready for housing and a further 10 years-worth for future development.
Source: Housing & Planning Delivery Grant (HPDG): Consultation on Allocation Mechanism, Department for Communities and Local Government (0870 1226 236)
Links: Consultation document | Hansard | DCLG press release | LGA press release | Inside Housing report
Date: 2007-Oct
The government published its 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review. There would be a £6.5 billion investment over 3 years in new social housing to deliver 45,000 new social homes per year by 2010-11, a 50 per cent increase compared with 2007-08, with a goal of reaching 50,000 per year during the next spending review period.
Source: Meeting the Aspirations of the British People: 2007 Pre-Budget Report and Comprehensive Spending Review, Cm 7227, HM Treasury, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Summary | Hansard (1) | Hansard (2) | HMT press releases | DCLG press release | NHF press release | Shelter press release | CIH press release
Date: 2007-Oct
A discussion paper examined trends in mortgage lending and their implications for affordability and the supply of housing.
Source: Christine Whitehead and Katrina Gaus, At Any Cost? Access to housing in a changing financial marketplace, Shelter (020 7505 4699)
Links: Report
Date: 2007-Sep
The government announced a £500 million package of incentives, provided through the new housing and planning delivery grant, designed to reward local councils which sped up housing supply delivery and maximized the supply of building land in their areas.
Source: Press release 14 September 2007, Department for Communities and Local Government (020 7944 3000)
Links: DCLG press release | LGA press release | IDeA press release | Shelter press release | NHF press release | BPF press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Guardian report | BBC report
Date: 2007-Sep
A think-tank report said that about 2 million homes would have to be built on greenfield sites to meet the government's plans to tackle housing shortages.
Source: Should the Green Belt be Preserved?, Social Market Foundation (020 7222 7060)
Links: Report | SMF press release | BPF press release | BBC report | FT report | Guardian report
Date: 2007-Sep
A report set out the role of housing associations in meeting government targets for increasing the supply of housing and building sustainable neighbourhoods.
Source: Building Neighbourhoods: A solution for sustainable investment in new and existing communities, National Housing Federation (020 7278 6571)
Links: Report
Date: 2007-Sep
A report by a government agency said that affordable homes provided under 'section 106' agreements could be delivered faster, better, and with more certainty. It emphasized the role that flexible mechanisms or 'cascades' within the agreements could have in ensuring delivery of affordable homes over the full development period, especially in large-scale planning applications.
Source: Beverley Spear et al., Cascades: Improving certainty in the delivery of affordable housing for large-scale development?, English Partnerships (01925 644635)
Links: Report | English Partnerships press release
Date: 2007-Sep
A report said that unless something radical was done about housing supply, the housing market would continue to be 'distorted and dysfunctional': house prices would rise by more than 40 per cent across England by 2012. It called on the government to help fund a social housing programme averaging 70,000 new homes per year over the period 2008-2011 (a 75 per cent increase in annual supply).
Source: Home Truths: The case for 70,000 new social homes a year, National Housing Federation (020 7278 6571)
Links: Report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2007-Aug
A report said that increasing the supply of land for housing would make little difference to housebuilding rates or house prices.
Source: Green Balance, Planning for Housing Affordability: Why providing more land for housebuilding will not reduce house prices, Campaign to Protect Rural England (020 7981 2800)
Links: Report | CPRE press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2007-Jul
The government announced plans for 3 million new homes to be built by 2020 – over a quarter of a million more than previously planned. The annual housebuilding target would be increased from 200,000 to 240,000 homes from 2016. The expansion would take place in environmentally-friendly ways, using principally brownfield land and building 'eco-towns' and villages. There would be measures to encourage local councils to build affordable homes on surplus public land.
Source: The Governance of Britain: The Government?s Draft Legislative Programme, Cm 7175, Leader of the House of Commons, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Statement | Hansard | LGA press release | NLGN press release | DCH press release | TCPA press release | CRC press release | NHF press release | CML press release | Help the Aged press release | CPRE press release | Greenpeace press release | Guardian report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2007-Jul
A discussion paper examined whether government measures designed to increase housing supply had gone far enough; and, even if they had, whether there were other factors that would prevent timely delivery of the required growth in housing supply. New models of housing delivery that relieved housebuilders of some of the risk factors, transferring them on to other players in the delivery chain, might be one way of increasing the pace at which homes could be built.
Source: Nick Townsend, Building More and Better Homes: Creating the framework for successful housing growth, Shelter (020 7505 4699)
Links: Paper
Date: 2007-Jul
A report said that house-builders had banks of land with planning permission close to 14,000 acres, enough for 225,000 new homes. House-builders and others needed to stop blaming the planning system as the sole factor in restricting land supply.
Source: Kelvin MacDonald and Andrew Kliman, Opening up the Debate: Exploring housing land supply myths, Royal Town Planning Institute (020 7929 9494)
Links: Report | RTPI press release
Date: 2007-Jun
The fair trading watchdog launched a market study into the housebuilding industry. The study would consider the potential competition and consumer concerns within the market, focusing on two principal areas: delivery of housing - whether land which was suitable for development was being effectively brought through to the planning approval stage, and whether land with planning permission was being converted effectively into homes; and customer satisfaction - the homebuyer's satisfaction with the properties available.
Source: Press release 22 June 2007, Office of Fair Trading (0870 606 0321)
Links: OFT press release | RTPI press release | TCPA press release | Regeneration & Renewal report | FT report
Date: 2007-Jun
A survey of local authority housing managers highlighted the barriers to councils fulfilling their strategic housing role. These included a lack of resources, and difficulties in recruiting and retaining suitable staff. The supply of affordable homes was the top housing priority facing councils.
Source: Press release 14 June 2007, Improvement and Development Agency (020 7296 6693)
Links: IDeA press release | Guardian report
Date: 2007-Jun
An article said that the most important factor explaining England's housing supply problem was the operation of the land-use planning system. There was considerable doubt as to whether the measures proposed by the Barker Inquiry would be implemented on the requisite scale.
Source: Glen Bramley, 'The sudden rediscovery of housing supply as a key policy challenge', Housing Studies, Volume 22 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2007-Mar
A report by a government agency highlighted the cost of providing environmental services (such as water and sewerage infrastructure, and flood protection) to cope with the development of new housing.
Source: Simon Bingham and Amy Jackson, Hidden Infrastructure: The pressures on environmental infrastructure, Environment Agency (08459 333111)
Links: Report | Environment Agency press release | Guardian report
Date: 2007-Mar
A report said that unlocking a potential £7 billion of additional debt capacity from housing associations was key to meeting future affordable housing needs of between 40,000 and 50,000 new affordable homes for rent every year.
Source: Unlocking the Door: Delivering more affordable homes from the comprehensive spending review 2007, Housing Corporation (020 7393 2000)
Links: Report | Housing Corporation press release | NHF press release
Date: 2007-Feb
An article examined regulations promulgated by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive regarding the licensing of houses in multiple occupation. It said that this regulation was symptomatic of a mutated 'housing crisis? in which the old questions of the adequacy of provision had been supplanted by new questions of responsibility for deviant behaviour.
Source: Helen Carr, Dave Cowan and Caroline Hunter, 'Policing the housing crisis', Critical Social Policy, Volume 27 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2007-Jan
The government announced proposals for a new agency to deliver regeneration and housing in England. The proposed agency, to be called 'Communities England', would bring together the functions of English Partnerships, the Housing Corporation, and a range of work carried out by the Department for Communities and Local Government - including delivery of decent homes, housing market renewal, housing private finance initiatives, housing growth, and urban regeneration.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 17 January 2006, columns 35-36WS, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard | DCLG press release | English Partnerships press release | Housing Corporation press release | CIH press release | YJB press release | YMCA press release | Community Care report
Date: 2007-Jan
A study sought to identify the type, amount, and location of publicly owned land that could potentially be used to boost the supply of housing.
Source: Unlocking Public Land for Housing Supply, Town and Country Planning Association (020 7930 8903) with Entec
Links: Report | TCPA press release
Date: 2007-Jan