Responding to the PM's housing speech, Labour’s London Assembly Housing Spokesperson, Tom Copley AM, said:
“For years, the Government has been far behind the curve in addressing the sheer lack of genuinely affordable housing in London and across the country. What we needed the Prime Minister to announce today was major public investment in new social and council housing. What we got instead were the same tired old platitudes about the planning system we’ve been hearing from minister for years.
“Whilst some of the proposals announced today for reforming national planning laws are welcome, such as tackling abuse of viability assessments by developers, I am troubled by her attempts to shift the blame of the Government’s failures, onto councils for obstructing increases to housing supply.
“This is simply not the case, when councils are currently responsible for approving nine in ten planning applications, and over the last year have granted almost twice as many planning permissions as the number of new homes that had been completed.
“It’s a bit much for the Government to blame councils for a lack of housebuilding when ministers refuse to give councils the powers and finances necessary for them to build large numbers of homes directly. The Treasury refuses to remove the borrowing cap for council house building, which means it’s easier for a council to borrow to buy a shopping centre than to build new homes. Despite a manifesto pledge to give councils the power to buy up land to build on at a fair market value, the Government has so far failed to deliver this.
“The cuts that they have made to housing investment have led to the lowest number of new social rented homes built on record.
“In stark contrast, we have a Mayor that is taking pragmatic steps to build the genuinely affordable housing that Londoners desperately need. Judging from the Prime Minister’s speech, the Government still need to take note."
Notes to editors
- PM's speech on making housing fairer
- Tom Copley is a Londonwide Assembly Member