Nearly 24,000 homes that should have been available for sale at low prices have instead been sold at premium prices during the past ten years. We can now reveal how this has worsened the housing crisis for the low paid.
With Christmas approaching and people, for a sadly brief time, suddenly beginning to think about the homeless, particularly those who sleep on our streets, the Government have released shocking figures that show what should have been 23,990 “affordable homes” were instead sold at full rate to the comfortably off. That left those without sufficient funds to struggle on. The places were built as a result of conversions from offices-to-residential use, according to the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, run by Angela Rayner.
Since 2015, a total of 95,962 new houses have been created by changing property from offices under “permitted development rights (PDR)”, where full planning permission is not required. Without the need for planning consent, developers avoid having to make 25% of new homes available under the affordable housing definition and local authorities cannot insist they either provide such low cost housing or make infrastructure contributions for social housing when they want to build more expensive, and for them profitable, homes.
The Local Government Association, (LGA), which represents councils in England and Wales, said that permitted development rights undermine and weaken the role of Councils’ Local Plans. They add that the provision also prevents local communities from having a say in decision making and compromises councils’ ability to manage the supply, location and quality of homes delivered in their areas.
As the Government continues to reform the planning system to ensure more social and genuinely affordable homes are delivered, the LGA are urging the Government to block this provision which permits the creation of new homes without contributions towards affordable housing. It is also claimed that “permitted development” allows homes to be built with inadequate natural light and restricted access to open spaces but yet prime prices are charged for these.
Cllr Adam Hug, LGA housing spokesperson, said: “The Government has set an ambitious target to deliver 1.5 million more homes over the parliament. Permitted development allows premises such as offices, agricultural buildings, shops, restaurants and light industry to be converted into houses without the need to provide any affordable homes.
“In order to deliver more housing of a decent standard, councils need the right powers, skills, resources and funding to act and want to work with government and the development and housebuilding industry to bring this about.”
To read about the true impact of homelessness, see Will Pendray’s article on this website Homeless at Christmas.