The Housing and Planning Bill, which includes controversial policies such as starter homes and Right to Buy, has received royal assent after a heated debate in parliament.
A battle between the Lords and the Commons ended last night after Lord Kerslake backed down on an amendment to give councils “sufficient” funding to replace affordable homes sold off to fund the extension of the Right to Buy to housing association tenants.
Peers and ministers had also debated the starter homes policy – a new affordable housing tenure which will give first-time buyers a 20% discount on the market rate to purchase new homes or flats.
Melanie Leech, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said it was good that the industry now had clarity about how the starter homes initiative will work, but said the government was at risk of failing to deliver on its promise of 200,000 homes by 2020.
She said: “The longer the government takes to iron out the details of this policy, the more that target slips into the distance. Spades are not likely to be in the ground until 2017 at the earliest, and time is certainly running out.”
It comes as the government prepares to launch a new planning bill next week to drive housebuilding through infrastructure investment and planning powers.
Measures to give local authorities greater compulsory purchase order powers to drive through large regeneration projects, new powers for elected mayors and the creation of a National Infrastructure Commission quango are all expected to be included in the new bill.
Leech said speculation was “rife” that there could be more primary legislation introduced next week aimed at bringing forward development.
“Most of all, we would like government to show that it truly understands the symbiotic relationship between infrastructure and development. Infrastructure is the closest thing to a silver bullet when it comes to enabling housing supply, and legislating for stronger CPO powers to help the National Infrastructure Commission bring forward its recommendations would be great to see.”
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