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Letwin: builders of large sites must accept more ‘diversity’ of tenure
Builders should be required to accept suggested levels of affordable housing for large sites in order to receive government support, including Help to Buy, a major review of housebuilding has concluded.
Sir Oliver Letwin’s Independent Review of Build Out, which was established to investigate whether or not large builders were land banking, published its final report today.
The report concluded that larger sites are developed slowly because “the homogeneity of the types and tenures of homes on offer” means builders develop and sell them slowly to avoid flooding the market.
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It said new planning rules should be adopted for sites of more than 1,500 homes in areas of high housing demand which require builders to “provide a diversity of offerings” of forms of housing.
A ‘national expert committee’ should also be established, Sir Oliver said, in order to advise local authorities on this diversity and arbitrate disputes.
He said the government should make “any future government funding for house builders or potential purchasers on such sites conditional upon the builder accepting a Section 106 agreement [the level of affordable housing provided to receive planning permission] which conforms with the new planning policy for such sites”.
A “small amount of funding” should also be set aside to ensure existing sites do not become unviable as a result of larger demands for affordable housing.
Local authorities should also be given the power to compulsorily purchase land designated for large sites in local plans at a price which reflects the new diversity requirements, Sir Oliver said.
The report, a draft of which was released in June, concluded that it takes 15.5 years on average to build out larger sites – with an even slower rate in London.
On labour, he added: “My conclusion was that an insufficient supply of bricklayers would be a binding constraint in the immediate future if there was not either a substantial move away from brick-built homes, or a significant import of more skilled bricklayers from abroad, or an implausibly rapid move to modular construction techniques.”
He concluded that a “flash” training of bricklayers co-ordinated by the relevant government departments, unions and major house builders was the best means of addressing the issue.
Autumn Budget 2018 - the key housing policies at-a-glance
- £1bn to help fund the implementation of Universal Credit over the next five years
- £500m in Housing Infrastructure Fund to unlock a further 650,000 homes
- The next wave of strategic partnerships with nine housing associations, which will deliver 13,000 homes
- British business bank guarantees for SME house builders
- ‘Simplification’ of process to convert commercial properties to new homes
- Providing funding to empower 500 neighbourhoods to allocate homes to local people in perpetuity
- Help to Buy equity loan scheme extended by two years to 2023 and limited to first-time buyers
- Retrospective inclusion of first-time buyers of shared ownership in stamp duty relief