The Housing White Paper, Fixing our Broken Housing Market was released on 7 February. The Government has done a good job of recognising some of the realities of delivering new homes, but also outlining an approach that takes not of all tenures. The White Paper is out for consultation and the Government is seeking views. The full document can be found here and the link to the original Baker Homes blog here.

Baker Homes is seeking to submit a response on behalf of its SHIFT Landlords and wants to put forward the views of the sustainability leaders in the sector. A brief reminder of the headlines:

• The focus is on increasing the supply of housing in terms of pace and quantity
• A larger role for local authorities in house building and facilitating house building through better administration
• A friendlier approach to RSL’s
• Increased protection for private renters and improving the private rental sector
• Increased protection for the Green Belt
• Further mechanisms for regional devolution
• Modern methods of construction are to be supported to deal with the lack of innovation in the sector (read Sarah Daly blog about RSLs and modular construction)
• Bringing more institutional investors into the housing sector
• A more balanced tenure model recognising affordability and demographic issues
• A reiteration of sustainable development under the NPPF
• Proposal to update climate change factors in policy to reflect future climate

The consultation document is at the end of the main document and sets out a number of key questions. We would like landlords to send their responses to these questions to Bevan Jones or comment below this blog.

We are seeking responses and/or general comments specifically on:

• Do you agree that national policy should be amended to encourage local planning authorities to consider the social and economic benefits of estate regeneration when preparing their plans and in decisions on applications, and use their planning powers to help deliver estate regeneration to a high standard?
• How could streamlined planning procedures support innovation and high-quality development in new garden towns and villages?
• Please give your views on whether an applicant’s track record of delivering previous, similar housing schemes should be taken into account by local authorities when determining planning applications for housing development.
• Do you agree with the proposals to amend national policy to make clear that the reference to the three dimensions of sustainable development, together with the core planning principles and policies at paragraphs 18-219 of the National Planning Policy Framework, together constitute the Government’s view of what sustainable development means for the planning system in England?
• Do you agree with the proposals to amend national policy to: a) Amend the list of climate change factors to be considered during plan-making, to include reference to rising temperatures? b) Make clear that local planning policies should support measures for the future resilience of communities and infrastructure to climate change?
• Do you agree with these proposals to clarify flood risk policy in the National Planning Policy Framework?
• Do you have any views or comments about the way the HWP deals with Green Belt considerations
• The HWP is proposing increasing levels of density. Is this something you agree with? How can this best be delivered?

We are seeking responses from landlords by Friday 21 April at 5pm. After which we will collate and circulate to respondents before submitting to the Department of Communities and Local Government at the beginning of May.

Bevan Jones

Bevan is the managing director of Baker Homes. Bevan’s areas of expertise are: Climate change adaptation | Climate change and business planning | Sustainable organisations | Carbon management | Sustainability strategy | Consultancy