The changes to the government’s planning system have been met with anger by local London Assembly Member John Biggs. The government has announced plans to remove the requirement for developers to build affordable housing.
The Mayor is responsible for the management of the affordable housing programme and on his watch affordable housing starts have fallen to their lowest level for a decade.
Today (Thursday) the Local Government Association published figures showing the government is wrong to say the planning system is a road block to recovery. The problem is caused by banks not lending.
The LGA report shows that over 400,000 houses across the country and 93,000 in London have planning permission but have not yet been built. In Newham, there are currently 6,393 signed off waiting to be built.
The average delay between planning approval and completion is now over two years.
The government have:
- Cut London’s affordable housing budget by 70%
- Changed the rules for affordable housing
- Created uncertainty and forced housing associations to change their financing arrangements and take on more debt.
Local Assembly Member John Biggs said: “In London alone, there are 93,000 houses with planning permission which haven’t been started or been stalled by developers. Since May 2010 the government has cut London's affordable housing budget by 70% and introduced sky-high rents for new 'affordable' homes. Now they are saying developers do not even need to deliver these.
In Newham there are 6,393 unimplemented housing approvals waiting to be built. These are stalled because banks aren't lending to developers, and because house builders want to limit supply to push up prices and increase their profits. This is something the government can fix and isn’t.
“Londoners are suffering as the government blames everybody else for their economic mess. There is an enormous need for decent low-cost rented housing. Yet the reality is that home ownership is a distant dream for many. Private sector rents are soaring, 200,000 families now live in overcrowded housing and rough sleeping are rising rapidly after years of decline.”
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Notes
- John Biggs is the Labour London Assembly Member for City and East covering Newham, Tower Hamlets, Barking & Dagenham and the City of London
Today’s report from the Local Government Association details the 400,000 houses that have planning permission that are yet to be built across the country and the 93,000 in London, see here: http://www.local.gov.uk/web/guest/media-releases/-/journal_content/56/10171/3704026/NEWS-TEMPLATE