A report called for local councils in England to be given additional borrowing powers to build affordable homes. It said that the existing Whitehall-imposed debt ceiling prevented them from exploiting the value tied up in their housing stock. A more liberal borrowing regime would give councils access to an additional £7 billion, allowing 60,000 new homes to be built over the next five years, creating jobs, and generating extra tax revenue.
Source: Let's Get Building: The case for local authority investment in rented homes to help drive economic growth, National Federation of ALMOs/ARCH/Chartered Institute of Housing/Local Government Association
Links: Report | NFA press release | LGA press release | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-Nov
A commission report said that local government pension funds should invest up to £10 billion (15 per cent of their assets) in new housing, enabling 300,000 homes to be built for rent and shared ownership.
Source: John Banham, Roger Graef, Kate Faulkner, and Mavis McDonald, Building the Homes and Communities Britain Needs, Future Homes Commission (Royal Institute of British Architects)
Links: Report | RIBA press release | LGA press release | BBC report | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-Oct
A report said that the number of planning permissions obtained for housing development in England and Wales had decreased by 34 per cent since the start of the recession in 2008-09. The number of unimplemented schemes had decreased by 31 per cent over the same period. The average time taken for a private development to be completed had increased over the previous five years, although the average time taken for social developments had remained broadly the same.
Source: Glenigan, An Analysis of Unimplemented Planning Permissions for Residential Dwellings, Local Government Association
Links: Report | LGA press release
Date: 2012-Sep
A report examined the economic characteristics of the housing market, the extent to which the structure and industrial organization of the housing market differed from other markets, and whether there were features of the housing market that constrained the potential supply of new homes. The conditions under which a market led to an economically efficient level of supply might not be satisfied in the housing market: although action to address market failures and limit the unintended consequences of government action might well lead to an improvement in supply, it still might not deliver from the market the level of housebuilding that was required.
Source: FTI Consulting, Understanding Supply Constraints in the Housing Market, Shelter
Links: Report | Shelter press release | Inside Housing report
Date: 2012-Jul
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on the financing of new housing.
Source: Government Response to the Communities and Local Government Committee s Report on Financing of New Housing Supply, Cm 8401, Department for Communities and Local Government, TSO
Links: Response
Notes: MPs report (May 2012)
Date: 2012-Jul
Date: 2012-Jun
A report said that the coalition government was failing to deliver on 5 out of 10 key housing indicators. These included housing supply, affordability of the private rented sector, and homelessness. It urged the government to make good on its promises, in particular to 'get Britain building' – which would provide much needed homes and also deliver new jobs and economic growth. It warned of the urgency of meeting the nation's housing needs as pressures (such as falling incomes and a growing and ageing population) intensified over the years ahead, putting an increasing strain on the 'broken' housing market.
Source: Andy Tate, Toby Lloyd, Sian Sankey, Tristan Carlyon, and George Marshall, The Housing Report: Edition 2, National Housing Federation/Shelter/Chartered Institute of Housing
Links: Report | NHF press release | Labour Party press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2012-May
A report by a committee of MPs said that the government needed to employ a basket of measures, covering all tenures of housing, if sufficient finance were ever to be available to tackle England's housing crisis. The committee set out four key areas for action:
• Large-scale investment from institutions and pension funds.
• Changes to the financing of housing associations, including a new role for the historic grant on their balance sheets.
• Greater financial freedoms for local authorities.
New and innovative models, including a massive expansion of self-build housing.
Source: Financing of New Housing Supply, Eleventh Report (Session 2010-12), HC 1652, House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | Additional written evidence | LGA press release | BBC report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2012-May
A think-tank report examined the affordability of housing in London. It looked at buying, renting, and the potential impact on affordability of the coalition government's welfare reforms. The most effective solution was to increase the supply of new and affordable homes. It proposed the following options for further consideration:
• Increasing the supply of housing in the capital through novel roles for registered social landlords, and releasing more public land for development.
• Improving London's welfare reforms by (in the short term) raising the local housing allowance (LHA) caps in London by £10 per week, and (in the longer term) devolving power and responsibility for housing benefit to the mayor.
• Achieving reasonable regulation of the private rented sector by exploring the idea of maximum base rents in the LHA sub-market of the private rented sector.
Increasing the taxation of foreign buyers of prime London property.
Source: Phil McCarvill, Declan Gaffney, and Matt Griffith, Affordable Capital? Housing in London, Institute for Public Policy Research
Links: Report | Inside Housing report | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-May
A report said that procurement processes in the housing sector were 'onerous and costly', thanks to overzealous interpretations of European Union procurement rules. It recommended rationalizing regulations into three parts – planning, building, and housing standards – and doing away with other regulatory systems. A simplified system would drive down the cost of building affordable housing and help to attract the private sector into the market.
Source: Rationalising Regulations for Growth and Innovation, Housing Forum
Links: Report | Housing Forum press release | Inside Housing report
Date: 2012-Apr
A think-tank report said that not enough was being done to reduce the 'extraordinarily high' cost of housing. Only a thorough liberalization of the planning system could address the affordability crisis. The coalition government s national planning policy framework did not address the fundamental problem of 'NIMBYism'. Reforms were needed so that local residents obtained the advantages of development, and to enable rational trade-offs between preserving valuable pieces of countryside and other considerations.
Source: Kristian Niemietz, Abundance of Land, Shortage of Housing, Discussion Paper 38, Institute of Economic Affairs
Links: Report | Summary | Inside Housing report
Date: 2012-Apr
A report highlighted the range of approaches being adopted by local councils in England to promoting new housing growth.
Source: Delivering Housing Growth: A collection of essays, Local Government Association
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Feb
