How can planning help meet the need for one million homes by 2020?

Last week I attended the third annual Planning For Housing Conference. An opportunity for industry leaders to come together and build upon their experience and expertise, and tackle some of the challenges facing housing industry. Top of everyone's mind and the theme for this year's conference is: ‘How can planning help meet the need for one million homes by 2020?’.

While we weren't able to solve the country’s housing crisis in a day, bringing the public and private sectors together to debate the issues did highlight some key focal areas:

Vision for Local Plans

According to Government while 82% of councils have published local plans, only 65% have fully adopted them, and there are still almost 20% of councils that do not have an up to date plan at all. Developers assert that the lack of a clear vision within local authorities is delaying the building of new houses. The new minister of housing stands firm that if local authorities don’t have Local Plans in place by 2017, the government will intervene. Without elaborating on the extent of Government intervention, it is evident this is a priority for the new Minister of Housing and Planning.

Get the Public Sector Building

Our shortage of houses dates back to the early 1970s when council house building went into decline. Attendees agreed that a major public sector building programme is needed to tackle the housing shortage and that local authority commissioned homebuilding to be part of the solution. Government's £5bn pledge to tackle Britain’s housing crisis by accelerating building projects is a positive step and will help get local authorities back to building social housing. A public-sector building scheme will supplement private development and help keep escalating house prices in check.

Stamp Duty Reform

Developers are urging Government to reform the stamp duty introduced by George Osborne. The new stamp duty has deterred much-needed institutional investment in the built-to-rent sector and ultimately the 3pc hike is being carried over to renters. The net effect is that it is making rents more expensive and making it harder for first-time homeowners to save.

My Questions to the Minister?

It’s clear that there isn’t any single solution to our housing crisis and that only by working together will we overcome the challenge, but the event did leave me with three questions for the new housing Minister.

• Does the new housing Minister need to incentivise the housing market to help accelerate new homes to be built?
• Do Local Authorities need to have their Local Plans in place to enable developers to better understand the environments before proposing developments?
• What measures is the government taking to improve community engagement in the neighbourhood planning process?