Social Housing Weekly - 05 August 2024

Will the business of running the country now distract the government from its housing agenda?

Up to now our new government has had a pretty free run at a rolling out its agenda, and pleasingly for this newsletter (and the housing crisis) much of it has been focused on housing and development. This past week alone we have news and analysis of the NPPF consultation, a (welcome?) return to mandatory housing targets, the locations for these targets and a New Towns Taskforce. Peter Lord has more on the detail of these important policy moves below.

But this week reality bites and understandably the government’s focus will be on dealing with riots up and down the country as well as worries about a global stock market sell off and ongoing conflicts around the globe. For Sir Keir and his government, the easy bit is already over. 

The government will find it increasingly hard to push forward a fairly radical and contentious housing agenda amongst the noise of running a government and crises as they emerge, and this is even before political opponents have got organised or have any cohesive ideas on these new housing policies.

For now though, let's dive into those best-laid plans as we ask whether new housing targets are politically motivated and just exactly what Angela Rayner thinks of beauty...

Jesse Peacock

LCA Associate Director

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We're devils for the detail

Checking in on the government's housing agenda - by Peter Lord

Since the launch of Labour's manifesto in June this year, your correspondent has risked repetitive strain injury from typing that "we await details of the plans" or "the devil is in the detail" With the publication this week of the government's NPPF updates, and the announcement of the New Towns Taskforce, we have more of that detail to assess, and the picture looks... mixed.

Targeting Tory areas

The main headline-grabbing announcement in the new-look NPPF has been the re-introduction of housing targets. While this has proven popular amongst some commentators, others have lost no time in pointing out that the target areas appear politically motivated. The Times has found that the new targets for constituencies held by shadow cabinet ministers are almost double those in seats held by Cabinet ministers, while the Telegraph reports that housing targets for Conservative-controlled council areas are almost six times higher than those for Labour local authorities. Call us cynical, but pushing extra homes on your political opponents feels like such an obvious strategy that LCA's Nick Bowes questions why it took the Conservatives a decade to cotton onto an idea which Labour has realised in less than a month.

Beauty in the eye of the pen-holder

Regular readers will recall that during the early days of the election campaign we discussed how Angela Rayner's stance on beauty appeared to mirror that of her predecessor Michael Gove, stating that only ‘attractive homes’ will be delivered under a Labour government. Although these aesthetic references have been removed, Rayner has stated that the proposed change will not result in the delivery of a ‘load of ugly houses’, but that new homes would have to be in keeping with the local area and accompanied by the delivery of new infrastructure.

New towns

Our readers will recall that views differ at LCA Towers over the government's plans to deliver new towns. The key issue, in our eyes, being the location of these proposed new settlements. While we still don't know where they will be built, we do know that they will be around 10,000 homes in size, approximately the same as the much-maligned Northstowe new town project in Cambridgeshire. We also know that these new towns will need to be well-designed and sustainable and that there will be a focus on social and affordable housing (huzzah!)

Housing in the headlines

New-look NPPF unveiled

The Government has published its proposed updates to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), introducing a mandatory standard method for housing need and reinstating national housing targets. New housing targets have increased from 300,000 a year to 370,000 with the 35% urban uplift removed in place of a method based on measuring existing housing stock and house prices. The NPPF update includes measures to target universal Local Plan coverage and strategic planning powers for combined authorities, define permitted uses of so-called ‘grey belt’ land in the Green Belt, and create new ‘golden rules’ for development of grey belt sites. 

New Towns taskforce to identify sites within a year

Secretary of State Angela Rayner has announced the creation of an independent New Towns Taskforce, headed by Sir Michael Lyons and Dame Kate Barker, which will identify potential sites for development within twelve months, in line with the Government’s ambition to create a new generation of New Towns. The programme is to create new communities of at least 10,000 new homes, governed by a New Towns Code to ensure that housing is well-connected, well-designed and sustainable, while targeting 40% affordable housing and a focus on social rent.

New funding deals could save taxpayers money and deliver 200,000 new homes

A new report from the Local Government Association and Pragmatix finds that the delivery of new five-year housing funding deals by 2025 would increase the social housing pipeline by 200,000 over the next 30 years. Its analysis shows that five-year funding regimes would reduce government spending due to less need for emergency funding, while lowering spending in temporary accommodation.

Let's get political

Reeves claims tax rises will not target working people

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has admitted that the autumn Budget on 30 October will include tax rises, following the publication of the Treasury’s audit into public spending. Speaking on The News Agents podcast, Reeves said ‘I think we will have to increase taxes’ but ruled out any tax increases on ‘working people’, including VAT, income tax and National Insurance. Reeves has not ruled out changes to targeted tax increases to inheritance tax, pension reforms and capital gains tax.

Base rate falls as growth forecast to miss government target

The Bank of England has cut interest rates for the first time since 2020. According to the Bank’s forecasts, the UK economy is expected to grow faster than expected, but will fall short of the Government’s target.

Pro-growth Labour caucus declares war on NIMBYs

A group of 53 backbench Labour MPs have formed a new party caucus, the ‘Labour Growth Group’, aimed at promoting pro-growth and pro-development policies in government. The group includes a number of London MPs and espouses an anti-NIMBY policies, claiming that failure to tackle the blockers will leave Britain "in a trap of low growth".

Lib Dems come out gunning for the Blue Wall

Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey, has said his party is planning to ‘finish the job’ of clearing the ‘Blue Wall’ of Conservative MPs at the next General Election, confirming his intentions to remain Leader of the party and ‘ruthlessly’ target former Conservative heartlands in the south of England.

Government to scrap computing and AI projects

The Government has scrapped plans to invest £1.3bn in AI and technology projects. The plans, announced by the previous government, included funding for the creation of a new exascale supercomputer and funding for AI Research Resource. The Government has said that it is ‘absolutely committed’ to the delivery of technology infrastructure.