12 May 2006
Sweeping changes to the government's housing department have created the perfect opportunity to revive stalled building plans, a leading homeless charity has said.
In an interview with Public Finance in advance of a Public Management and Policy Association lecture on May 10, Adam Sampson, director of Shelter, urged the new Department for Communities and Local Government to review its house-building commitments and free resources for 20,000 extra social housing units per year.
Sampson said that despite strong support for house building under New Labour, some 'key members' of the former Office of the Deputy Prime Minister — responsible for housing before Prime Minister Tony Blair's recent reshuffle — had partially stymied attempts to tackle shortages of affordable housing.
But Sampson praised Blair for retaining housing minister Yvette Cooper, described as 'capable of delivering the necessary housing reforms to overcome a supply crisis'.
In rural areas, Sampson urged ministers to amend planning regulations protecting vast amounts of green belt land widely considered 'useless scrubland', which could house the fast-growing numbers of rural homeless.
'Sympathetic [green belt] development', he argued, would use up around 1% of total green belt land and could create sufficient jobs and opportunities across rural economies. It would also ease the destruction of local communities, including school closures.
The most important focus of government policy, he said, remained finding new ways of tackling the huge shortage of social rented housing in both rural and urban areas.
Speaking on May 9, new Communities and Local Government Secretary Ruth Kelly acknowledged that housing supply was a 'key challenge' facing her department. She promised 'appropriate help' for those who cannot purchase homes.
PFmay2006
