The Government has unveiled a new long-term plan for housing, committing to a new era of regeneration, inner-city densification and housing delivery across England, with transformational plans to supply beautiful, safe, decent homes in places with high-growth potential in partnership with local communities.
The announcement of this plan comes with the news that the Conservatives will meet the manifesto commitment to build a million homes by the end of this Parliament. This builds on the current housebuilding strategy which has seen over 2.2 million new homes delivered since 2010, with millions of people having moved into home ownership.
Rather than concreting over the countryside, the Government will focus on prioritising building in inner-city areas where demand is highest and growth is being constrained. This includes a new urban quarter in Cambridge, and transformational changes in central London and Leeds.
In addition to targeted action in a few high-potential areas, the government’s plan delivers a package of reforms to unleash building on underused sites in high-demand regions. Densification, done the right way, will transform the opportunities available to people across the country – our inner cities have much lower population densities than comparable Western countries, impacting our productivity.
To deliver housing anywhere, all new homes built will need to be accepted by the community – they will need to be beautiful, well-connected, designed with local people in mind and be accompanied by the right community infrastructure and green space. Communities must have a say in how and where homes are built. In this plan, communities will be supported to be at the heart of new development in their areas.
Through additional reforms to the planning system, this will speed up new developments, and put power into the hands of local communities to build their own homes, and unlock planning decisions. A new fund of £24 million will help to scale up local planning capacity, and an additional £13.5 million will be used to stand up a new “super-squad” of experts to support large scale development projects.
Commenting, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said:
"Today I can confirm that we will meet our manifesto commitment to build 1 million homes over this Parliament. That’s a beautiful new home for a million individual families in every corner of our country.
"We need to keep going because we want more people to realise the dream of owning their own home. We won’t do that by concreting over the countryside – our plan is to build the right homes where there is the most need and where there is local support, in the heart of Britain’s great cities.
"Our reforms today will help make that a reality, by regenerating disused brownfield land, streamlining planning process and helping homeowners to renovate and extend their houses outwards and upwards."
Leo Docherty MP added:
"We can see the transformational impact regeneration is having here in the Aldershot constituency, from the Wellesley estate revitalizing former MoD land, and the long-term plans to revitalise our two town centres in Farnborough and Aldershot.
"I welcome the news of this plan, and the Government's commitment to providing good quality homes in the right places and an assured path towards home ownership for young people."
