Gov’t outlines latest plans to address the housing crisis

Housing Secretary Michael Gove’s speech earlier this week (on 24th July) included a variety of measures designed to ease the housing crisis and stimulate growth, including:

• providing an additional £24m to help local authority planning teams reduce the planning backlog;

• creating a £13m ‘super-squad’ of expert planners to unblock major housing and infrastructure delivery;

• consulting on proposed permitted development rights that would make the conversion of offices and shops into homes easier;

• launching the Office for Place, which will be dedicated to supporting high-quality design in housing;

• establishing a programme of urban regeneration focussed on 20 city-centre renewals across the UK (including schemes in Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Wolverhampton and Barrow);

• Promoting an eastwards extension to London (Docklands 2.0);

• ‘Supercharging’ Cambridge, with new homes, infrastructure and research space;

• reconfirming a commitment to development on brownfield rather than greenfield sites, with a strong emphasis on urban densification.

Much of the speech repackaged measures previously outlined in the Levelling-Up & Regeneration Bill and consultation document on the proposed reforms to the NPPF.

Details about the potential changes to Permitted Development are still awaited.