Miliband backs housebuilding drive with ‘right to grow’ councils

16 Dec 13
Ed Miliband today hit out at some councils for blocking development in neighbouring authorities, and pledged that a future Labour government would give town halls a ‘right to grow’.

By Richard Johnstone | 16 December 2013

Ed Miliband today hit out at some councils for blocking development in neighbouring authorities, and pledged that a future Labour government would give town halls a ‘right to grow’.

In a speech in Stevenage, Miliband said the Labour-run local authority had its plans to build new homes blocked by the objections of neighbouring North Hertfordshire District Council.

To overcome such objections, the Labour leader said towns would be able to expand to tackle local housing shortages. Under the proposals, the Planning Inspectorate would examine different local plans, and arbitrate between authorities to allocate housing construction based on need. It would then oversee a fast track consultation to agree development.

Four Labour-controlled councils – Stevenage, Oxford, Luton and York – have signed up to become the first ‘right to grow’ local authorities where there is immediate potential to build 40,000 new homes.

Miliband said such reforms were needed to reach his aim, set out at the Labour Party conference in September, of increasing the supply of new homes in England to more than 200,000 a year by the end of the next parliament.

‘Of course it is right that local communities have a say about where housing goes,’ he said.

‘But councils cannot be allowed to frustrate continually the efforts of others councils to get homes built. So the next Labour government will unblock this planning process and unlock the potential to build tens of thousands of new homes where they are needed.’

Miliband also formally launched the party’s housing commission, led by Sir Michael Lyons, who has been asked to develop plans to boost building.

‘I want to send a clear message today: we will tackle those councils that block homes, those developers that hoard land and this government that fails to act on the worst housing shortages for a generation,’ Miliband said.

‘We will stand up for home builders and first time buyers. And take on those who stand in the way of working people and their children having the decent homes they deserve.’

The government is currently presiding over the lowest levels of homes built in peacetime since the 1920s, he said, and families are suffering from some of the worst housing shortages for a generation.

‘At current rates we will be two million homes short of what Britain needs by 2020.

‘If families are to prosper and our country is to succeed, Britain needs new homes. And the next Labour government will lead a non-stop drive to build them.’

Lyons’ housing commission has also been asked to draw up detailed proposals on both the right to grow and the ‘use it or lose it’ powers, intended to release land being ‘hoarded by developers’, Miliband said.

It will also look at how local authorities can identify sites for new towns and garden cities and have the projects underwritten by the Treasury, similar to the UK Guarantees currently provided for infrastructure projects.

The commission will also look at simplifying the rules around the Housing Revenue Account to give local authorities more flexibility over spending existing public funding for development.

Responding to the announcement, Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said that under the last Labour government, housebuilding fell to its lowest peacetime rate since the 1920s.

‘Their top-down regional strategies and eco-towns failed hardworking families who aspired to own their own home, building nothing but resentment,’ he said.

‘That’s why we have worked with local communities to help build more homes, scrapping regional strategies and rewarding construction via the New Homes Bonus. We are helping hardworking people up the housing ladder through Help to Buy and the reinvigorated Right to Buy. Both first time buyers and housing construction have risen to their highest level since 2007, whilst repossessions have plummeted thanks to the lower interest rates from our long-term economic plan.’

CIPFA chief executive Rob Whiteman said it was welcome that the Labour commission would consider how local authorities can help increase the amount of homes being built.

'We also welcome the consideration of additional flexibility for the Housing Revenue Account and look forward to seeing the detail of the proposals, though we must make sure that any proposal doesn’t mean that hard pressed councils can dip into the HRA to fund other priorities.

'CIPFA have long argued that the most significant change government could make would be to remove the housing debt cap altogether and allow those councils that want to, to build the homes that the communities they serve so desperately need.'

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