London boroughs ‘ready with hardhats’ to boost housebuilding
Authorities in the capital have campaigned for the government to address homelessness ever since the crisis skyrocketed in 2020. Now, officials have expressed their enthusiasm to tackle the problem following the Chancellor’s speech.
Yesterday, the first-ever female Chancellor, Rachael Reeves, delivered her first speech in the role in which she set out new housing targets. Among the plans were ideas to establish a new taskforce to accelerate stalled housing sites, invest in council planning officers and restore mandatory housing targets. Each of these promises will be beneficial for a number of reasons, but London Boroughs have expressed that the greatest outcome will be tackling the homelessness crisis.
According to recent statistics, London faces the most severe housing pressures in the country. London Councils estimates that one in 50 Londoners is currently homeless and living in temporary accommodation. What’s more, over 320,000 households are on waiting lists for social housing.
Against this backdrop, the cross-party organisation has also highlighted that a pipeline of 283,000 potential new properties have been granted planning permission in London and are waiting to be built.
Cllr Claire Holland, deputy chair of London Councils, said: ‘Boroughs are strongly pro-housing growth and welcome the Chancellor prioritising this pivotal issue. We’re standing with hardhats on, shovels in hand, and ready to work with the government on our shared housebuilding ambitions.
‘There is a desperate need to build more homes in the capital. Without new housing – particularly affordable housing and homes for social rent – London’s homelessness crisis will only continue to worsen. The capital’s future success depends upon us tackling this.’
‘Boroughs have a key role to play. We have a good record in supporting housebuilding and in granting planning permission, but we’re keen to go even further in ensuring more homes get built, more quickly,’ Cllr Holland added. ‘As well as reforming the planning system to maximise delivery, we also need to look at the wider challenges undermining housebuilding – such as lack of crucial local infrastructure, construction skills shortages, and insufficient long-term funding for developing affordable homes.’
On the topic of supporting housebuilding, London Councils have recognised how boroughs can help boost housing targets. The group have remarked that planning departments perform comparatively well when making decisions. According to figures from the Department of Levelling up, over the last two years, 88% of major planning applications across England and 93% in London were approved within 13 weeks or within an agreed time period.
With this in mind, Boroughs have claimed that additional resources, such as funding, for planning teams will bolster capacity and their ability to support more housebuilding in communities. At the minute, London Councils have estimated that boroughs resources are 28% lower than in 2010.
While the cross party group have outlined areas that boroughs would perform well, London Councils have also pointed out factors that could act as barriers to growing the housing supply.
These include:
- Capital funding is insufficient to deliver the scale of affordable housing required, especially after skyrocketing construction costs in recent years.
- Land in London is more scarce and more expensive than elsewhere in England.
- Available sites require remediation and infrastructure investment to unlock housing supply. For example, longer-term funding is vital for new transport investment that will enable new homes to be built on sites across London.
- Insufficient development capacity, especially in the public sector, and a shortage of skilled construction workers.
Image: Lucas Davies
Mayor of London pledges to end homelessness under one condition
London council pursues registered provider status to help tackle homelessness crisis
