By Lucy Phillips
19 July 2010
Plans to build tens of thousands of new homes have been scrapped following the government’s decision to axe regional house-building targets, the National Housing Federation said today.
Research carried out for the NHF, which represents housing associations, shows local authorities in England have abandoned proposals to build almost 85,000 houses since the coalition pledged to abolish the targets.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles advised councils to ignore the targets in May and formally revoked them at the beginning of this month. Pickles claimed they were ‘a terrible, expensive, time-consuming way to impose house building’.
Exeter, Torbay and North Somerset councils are among those dropping plans for new homes. Overall, local authorities in the Southwest are shelving the highest number of houses, at 59,750, followed by the East of England, at 20,540.
The NHF condemned the reductions, claiming that more than 4.5 million people were currently on waiting lists for new homes and 2.5 million people living in overcrowded conditions.
Chief executive David Orr said: ‘It is frankly disappointing that so many local authorities have decided to revise down the number of homes planned for their areas… [they] need to recognise that just because regional targets have gone, housing need has not.’
He urged the government to urgently replace the regional targets with some form of transitional arrangements.
Paul O’Brien, chief executive of the Association for Public Service Excellence, also criticised the government’s approach. Writing on the Public Finance blog, ‘Offtarget on housing', he said: ‘A laissez-faire approach to planning might grab the headlines and pander to Nimby tendencies. But as an issue of social policy, it is an ill-thought out move.’
At this stage there are no plans to reduce the number of houses planned in London because this is independently controlled by Mayor Boris Johnson, for whom new housing ‘remains a priority’, according to the NHF.
