CIH reaction to government's housing reform announcement

Today, deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, has addressed the House of Commons setting out the new government's house building plans. The secretary of state for housing, communities and local government announced a series of housing reforms to overhaul planning rules and bring back mandatory housing targets to build new social homes.

Gavin Smart, chief executive of Chartered Institute of Housing commented:

“Today's government announcement on housing and planning is very welcome. Our national housing crisis needs urgent attention and it is encouraging to see the government set out both a set of immediate measures and commit to a long term plan for housing, designed to ensure everyone has a decent, safe and affordable place to live as CIH has called for.

“An effective planning system is an important element of housing delivery. National housing targets will help to create clear expectations about delivery at the national and local level; what gets measured gets done.

“The strong focus on providing social rented homes is especially welcome, we urgently need to concentrate on providing more of these most affordable homes for people in the most acute housing need, greater flexibility and certainty in funding arrangements will help with this.

“Local authorities have the potential to be an important part of the mix and it is encouraging to see government move to support them to do more.

“Reviewing the operation and the impact of Right To Buy is long overdue and is a welcome development.”

We will be producing a member briefing with further detail from today's announcement in the upcoming days.