New figures show that the number of new homes in England has risen by 15% over the past year. The Prime Minister said that ‘We must get back into the business of building the good quality new homes for people who need them most. That is why I have made it my mission to build the homes the country needs and take personal charge of the Government’s response… in coming weeks and months, my Government will be going further to ensure that we build more homes, more quickly’. Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said: ‘I want to see a giant leap, and hundreds of thousands more homes’.
The Prime Minister and the Communities Secretary recently held a meeting with developers and housing associations in Downing Street to ‘discuss actions needed to remove the barriers they are facing in building new homes’.
In 2004, the existing procedure for councils to draw up a local plan, setting how and where they expect to meet their residents’ needs for new homes was introduced. Latest figures published today show that more than 70 local authorities still have not had a local plan adopted and 15 of these are showing particular cause for concern having missed deadlines and failed to make progress. These 15 local authorities have now been served notice that government has begun the formal process of intervention as set out in the housing white paper.