Communities secretary James Brokenshire has said it is a government priority to help local authorities provide more homes.
Brokenshire said: “We did make that decision in October to lift the housing revenue account borrowing cap, but that of itself doesn’t bring about change per se.
“It is very high up on my list, analysing how we unlock this better. There are steps that are already underway to be able to provide that level of support, but I’m quite sure that there is more that we need to do.”
Speaking at the Creating Communities event, held by Create Streets and Onward, he said councils need “capability and sharing skills and good practice” to enable the confidence to bring forward homes and communities.
Brokenshire pointed to the potential for councils to partner with housing associations and other parties to broaden this capability.
He added that Homes England and the Local Government Association also have a role to play in supporting councils.
Brokenshire added that councils have “an intrinsic role” to support town centres and high streets as community hubs.
He said: “There is support that we are now assembling and putting into place.”
On the topic of placemaking and development, he said: “It is a range of issues that we are grappling with here. I know that there are a lot of things that need fixing. We’ve been on a trajectory, we’ve started on this work, but there is so much more to do.”
He added that strategic investment in roads, infrastructure and skills and employment “needs to be focused in a more concerted way”.
Brokenshire said: “I think we need stronger capabilities and to join up within government to harness this more effectively and more fully, to create strong, confident communities, both socially and economically.”
Reviving town centres
In the 2018 Budget, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government committed £675m through the Future High Streets Fund for councils to revive their town centres and high streets. The finance supports local areas to prepare long-term strategies and includes funding a new High Streets Taskforce.
The MHCLG did not comment on any further support from the department, but pointed to business rates relief in the Budget, the Town Centre Taskforce and the Open Doors scheme to use empty shops for community use.
A spokesman said: “Our ambition of building 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s is backed by investment of over £44bn, rewriting the planning rules and giving local authorities the power to build a new generation of council houses.”
This week, the government released the long-awaited housing delivery test results measuring local planning authority home delivery against housing need.
A third of all local planning authorities failed to meet the target of 95% of homes delivered.
This figure means that 87 LPAs are required to add a 20% land buffer to their local plans and 108 LPAs must provide action plans to address their housing shortfall.
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