A newly released report written by the former policy
chairman of the City of London Corporation, Sir Mark Boleat, report has called
for a radical planning shake-up to solve London’s housing crisis.
In his paper for The Housing & Finance Institute, Sir
Mark demands action to force local authorities, central government departments,
the health service and transport bodies to stop hanging on to surplus space, or
face financial penalties.
For the first time, Sir Mark also dispels many of the myths
for why there are shortages of housing in London. He cites evidence to dispel
the myth that foreign buyers are to blame for the housing shortage in London,
the myth that there is brownfield land alone is sufficient to meet demand in
the capital and he counters the notion that with more housing must necessarily
also come the provision of extra funding for all other public services if what
is urgently needed is the housing in order to house the existing population.
The report identifies six inter-related factors that are
restricting the supply of new housing:
1. Policies on
land use, particularly in respect of the Green Belt.
2. The imposition
of a high tax on house builders through planning obligations, and a planning
system geared to the “haves” not the “have nots”, which adds considerably to
costs of building housing, including through the imposition of conditions that
have to be complied with before building can commence.
3. The reluctance
of public sector bodies to release surplus land.
4. The complex
nature of sites that have the potential to be used for house building.
5. Inadequate
infrastructure provision.
6. The nature of
the house building industry, which has become increasingly dominated by a small
group of large developers, partly in response to the five previous points.
The paper sets out a ten-point plan to get London building
again. There needs to be:
1. An
evidence-based debate and recognition that there are trade-offs.
2. Recognition
that the problem will not be solved by building on brownfield land alone.
3. Recognition
that the higher the tax on house building through planning obligations the
fewer houses will be built. 30 per cent of a large number can be much higher
than 50 per cent of a small number.
4. A change of
policy towards land use, including the Green Belt, and permitting higher
densities.
5. Strong
penalties on public sector bodies that fail to release surplus land.
6. Planning
conditions to be reduced significantly, costed and deemed to be discharged
within seven days of certification by the developer, unless the local authority
has clear evidence that the conditions have not been complied with.
7. Ensuring that
planning decisions in local authorities are joined-up with wider policy
objectives.
8. Planning
decisions should be taken by relatively small panels, who have received
appropriate training, and representatives of an area in which a development
would take place should be excluded from voting on that decision.
9. Simplification
of the Community Infrastructure Levy and S.106 requirements particularly for
social housing.
10. Political
leadership in individual local authorities, without which the problem will
never be solved and which is a pre-requisite for addressing the other issues.
Sir Mark continued: “For too long people influential in the
debate have been allowed to get away with inaccurate assertions.
The full paper can be
viewed here https://www.boleat.com/materials/housing_2017.pdf
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