In his speech at the National Housing Federation Conference on
19 September, Housing Minister Gavin Barwell called for a big
increase in housebuilding across all tenures, signalling a shift in
policy from the previous government's almost exclusive focus on
home ownership.
"We haven't built enough homes in this country for a very,
very long time", he said. Refusing to single out planners or
developers for blame, he insisted that "The truth is that we
need to release more land, speed up the planning system and get
homes built more quickly once planning permission is
granted".
In a departure from the previous government's almost exclusive
emphasis on starter homes, he added "The truth is we need more
homes for sale, more homes for market rent and more sub-market
homes for rent".
The Minister apologised that he was unable to give details on
the roll-out of voluntary RTB to housing associations, but argued
that it's not just RTB purchasers who should benefit from RTB,
because "I hope all of you are going to use the receipts from
those sales to build new properties for rent."
Read the Minister's speech.
ARCH CEO John Bibby comments:
"The acknowledgement by the Housing Minister that we need to
build more homes for sub-market rent echoes the call made by ARCH
Chair Cllr Paul Ellis in our
letter. We look forward to discussing the role that local
authorities can play in helping to deliver more affordable and
social rented housing when we meet the Minister on 12 October."