A new Housing Bill is aiming to increase home ownership and increase the number of new properties being built to meet demand.
The Government wants to improve the neighbourhood planning system, with local councils facing a number of changes. The proposals include asking local authorities to produce lists of self-build plots and brownfield sites available for development in their areas and removing the requirement for developers building starter homes to pay infrastructure contributions.
The Bill firms up the Government’s intention to introduce a statutory register of brownfield land, which was subject to a consultation earlier this year. A briefing note accompanying the Bill said the measure would “help achieve the target of getting local development orders in place on 90 per cent of suitable brownfield sites by 2020”.
The Bill also aims to give housing association tenants the right to buy the homes they are living in. The issue caused controversy when it was announced in the Conservatives’ manifesto ahead of the General Election. The briefing accompanying the Bill, which was included in the Queen’s Speech, said the right to buy and the building of more affordable homes would partly be funded by requiring local authorities to sell higher-value vacant council houses.