New homes plan announced

Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick has today, 16 December, announced the UK Government’s plans to introduce new measures to ‘level up England’s cities, recover from the pandemic and help provide much-needed new homes.’

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Following a consultation launched in the summer that sought views from planners, councils and the wider public, the UK Government has announced its plan and new methods to enable councils to deliver 300,000 more homes by the mid-2020s across England, prioritising brownfield sites and urban areas.

Under the proposals, cities will be encouraged to plan for more family homes – which are the right size and type – and to make the most of vacant buildings and underused land to protect green spaces. The plans will encourage more homes to be built in England’s 20 largest cities and urban centres, boosting local economies by supporting jobs in the building sector and revitalising high streets with the footfall new residents bring.

The Government also intends to revise the so-called ‘80/20 rule’ which guides how much funding is available to local areas to help build homes. This will establish a new principle to ensure funding is not just concentrated in London and the South East.

This Government wants to build more homes as a matter of social justice, for intergenerational fairness and to create jobs for working people. We are reforming our planning system to ensure it is simpler and more certain without compromising standards of design, quality and environmental protection.

A new expert Urban Centre Recovery Task Force has been set up to advise on the development and regeneration of our great town and city centres. The Task Force includes Peter Freeman, the visionary behind the redevelopment of Kings’ Cross and new Chair of Homes England.

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Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP Housing Secretary

Today’s announcement that the Government will be introducing new measures to help regenerates cities in the UK is an important step in the right direction. It is particularly important that as we try to reboot the economy, we build a greater supply of affordable houses that can rejuvenate urban areas most affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

However, we do remain concerned about the delivery of new homes in the future. In our Housing 2025 report we concluded that unless more drastic measures are taken to boost housebuilding, the affordability crisis will continue and worsen, leading many to become eternal renters. The challenges presented by dwindling property supply are still acute and we need the government to support housebuilding long-term in order to tackle them and help build a future where everyone has the opportunity to own or rent a decent home.

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Mark Hayward Propertymark Chief Policy Advisor

Further support

Alongside this announcement and the £20 billion investment in housing announced as part of the latest Spending Review, the Government is also:

  • Allocating more than £67 million in funding to the West Midlands and Greater Manchester Mayoral Combined Authorities to help them deliver new homes on brownfield land, as well as confirming an additional £100 million of funding for brownfield development.
  • Launching a new £100 million Brownfield Land Release fund to support brownfield development, estates regeneration, development on public sector land and self and custom-build serviced plots in coming forward. This will be open to councils across England, apart from those Mayoral Combined Authority areas that recently benefited from our £400 million brownfield fund. A significant portion of this new £100m will go supporting self and custom builders.
  • Encouraging councils to ensure that appropriate numbers of family homes come forward, with the right mix of home sizes, types and tenures for local communities.