MIPIM UK 2015: Housing and planning minister Brandon Lewis said the government is determined to “get the dial right” on housing tenures.
The promised 1m homes by 2020 will supply the appropriate accommodation for all housing needs, he said.
“We want to make sure we’ve got the overall picture right,” Lewis told Estates Gazette. “Our 200,000 starter homes are going to support people into home ownership, there is affordable housing and private rented sector housing, we have got a really diverse, mixed set of tenures in this country and we have got to make sure we are getting the dial right on every single part of that sector.”
The proportion of housing allocated to each tenure would vary “year by year”, he said.
Lewis described the Housing and Planning Bill as “the biggest piece of legislation we will see in this session of parliament” which aims to simplify and speed up the planning process and release 95% of developable brownfield land over the next five years.
“Instead of developers going to local authorities and debating whether they can develop and how many homes they can develop, they will be discussing what it will look like,” he said.
Lewis also said he had been inspired by the ambition of cities and regions which had earned greater powers and funding under the cities and devolution deal.
Cornwall, East Anglia and Cambridgeshire were regions aligning their aspirations with that of the northern powerhouse.
“The vibrancy is really quite exciting,” he said.
Rebecca.kent@estatesgazette.com
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