Since December, the government has exempted developers who turn an empty building into private housing from paying for further affordable units.
The amended paragraph of Vacant Building Credit (VBC) was added to the Government's Planning Objectives .
John Walker, director of planning at Westminster, describes the changes as “a government gift to developers”, going on to describe the changes as "insane." and "On just three schemes we consented [in a planning meeting] on 13 January we lost £29m."
John Walker, director of planning at Westminster, describes the changes as “a government gift to developers”, going on to describe the changes as "insane." and "On just three schemes we consented [in a planning meeting] on 13 January we lost £29m."
In 1953 the UK Government built 220,000 houses. Now the Government seem to want to make it the job of the private sector to solve the housing crisis.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the private sector will never be interested in that, because there is not enough money in it. So they will go on building "unaffordable" homes, while the number of homeless continues to rise and the Government sits by and does nothing.
No Tory-led Government is ever going to do anything to upset property developers, but then again their ideology prevents them from doing anything to directly solve the crisis. They could, but they won't.
Social housing is simply not something that lends itself to privatisation. The Government should step up to its responsibility to provide affordable rented housing and reverse the destructive social housing policies of the last 30 years.