20 January 2006
Focusing on social housing at the expense of shared equity or private homes will not be enough to meet housing need, housing and planning minister Yvette Cooper said this week.
Giving evidence to the Commons committee that monitors the work of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Cooper said the government needed to reflect the changing aspirations of the public.
'A smaller increase in social housing would not solve housing need. People's attitudes have changed. They want to own and share assets and I think the government should respond to that,' she told MPs on January 16.
Cooper said increasing the supply of 'shared ownership' housing would be a priority in the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review, which would also set out in more detail how the government plans to accelerate house-building rates from present levels of 150,000 a year to 200,000 a year by 2016.
The minister said the government was determined to build more. 'If we don't increase the level of house-building, the only people who can afford to buy their own home will be those who receive gifts or an inheritance. I don't think that's fair,' she said.
Investment in the infrastructure to support new housing developments is to be funded from revenue generated by the proposed Planning Gain Supplement, a new tax to be imposed on the profits of land sold for development.
Cooper said details of how much money the PGS is expected to generate and how it will be distributed would also have to wait until next year's Spending Review.
PFjan2006
