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OPINION

Property matters: Filling the housing gap

Property matters: Filling the housing gap
July 18, 2014
Property matters: Filling the housing gap

The LGA represents over 370 councils, and wants a raft of new measures to tackle the problem. If nothing is done, it reckons that in a decade the total shortage would be the equivalent of the entire population of Birmingham. Key measures proposed include government incentive schemes to encourage private developers to speed up housing delivery; the creation of council-led local land trusts; the complete scrapping of the housing borrowing cap, and an overhaul of the government's Right to Buy scheme.

Taking each proposal in turn; speeding up delivery of housing on land that already has planning consent could include incentives to reduce up-front costs and risk by engaging in early discussions with developers; guarantees and phasing payments for infrastructure. Council-led local land trusts would have powers to pool surplus central and local government land and make it available on a 'build now, pay later' model. And removing the housing revenue account borrowing cap and replacing it with the same controls that govern any other council lending would provide a useful and additional source of finance. Reviving the Right to Buy rules would mean that all receipts from sales would be retained directly by the council to reinvest in replacement housing.

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