Housebuilding target not enough

The Economic Affairs Committee has said that the government's aim to build one million new homes by 2020 is not enough to meet housing demand. It said that at least 300,000 new homes need to be built each year.

In its assessment of the situation, the cross-party House of Lords committee took aim at the government and its policies, saying its housebuilding policies will fall short of meeting demand, and that the government has:

• restricted funding for local authorities to build more social housing;
• created uncertainty by making changes to tax rules and subsidies for house purchases;
• a narrow focus on home ownership which ignores those who are renting.

Chairman of the committee, Lord Hollick, said "The country needs to build 300,000 homes a year for the foreseeable future. The private sector alone cannot deliver that. It has neither the ability nor motivation to do so. We need local government and housing associations to get back into the business of building."

In addition to outlining its concerns, the EAC have made a number of recommendations to address housing crisis, including:

• responsibility for identifying and coordinating the release of public land for housing should be given to a senior cabinet minister;
• the government should ask the National Infrastructure Commission to oversee the number of homes that are actually built on public land;
• local authorities should have funding to build social housing;
• levying a tax on developments that have planning permission but which are not completed within a set time period, in order to try and reduce the gap between the number of planning permissions granted and the number of homes actually built;
• local authorities should be allowed to set, and vary, planning fees to match the needs of their area.

Cedrec's take

Planning, as a profession, is all about balancing different factors in order to come to a decision about proposed development that is both suitable and sustainable. Local planning authorities are under immense pressure to deliver new homes. However, there is a worry that this pressure combined with the recent planning reforms that favour housebuilding will compromise proper planning.

Development is, and always will be, needed in order for society and economics to progress. But at what cost? Housebuilding on such a large scale can only be successful and sustainable if it is done properly and if the houses are built on suitable sites. It is also important not to forget that an increase in houses will also, at some point, require an improvement in other infrastructure, such as roads, railways, schools, hospitals, shops, public services etc. to ensure that existing infrastructure is not strained by population increase. It is therefore very important that housebuilding is not considered in isolation, away from these other issues.

Planning is an art (it was even, believe it or not, an Olympic event until 1948) and this should not be compromised, otherwise we could see an increase in rushed, inappropriate development just so that we can hit a government target.