Housing

Housing Green Paper - Supporting measures on housing supply

As well as the announcement of a new national target for housing supply, Homes for the future: more affordable, more sustainable (the Housing Green Paper) also set out a broad range of supporting measures.

As part of the overall increase in housing supply, the Green Paper announced an increase in the supply of housing for social rent and for low cost home ownership, with outputs of new affordable housing rising to at least 70,000 per year by 2010-2011, of which 45,000 will be new social rented homes, and 25,000 will be for low cost home ownership.

The Green Paper also announced:

  • an additional round of New Growth Points which will include the North for the first time
  • proposals for ten new eco-town schemes, with the entire community designed to be able to reach zero carbon standards. Each scheme could provide between 5,000 and 20,000 new homes. Depending on bids there is potential for building up to 100,000 homes
  • a review of regional plans (including sub-regional), to support eco-towns and New Growth Points by 2011, so that plans reflect the need to build 240,000 homes per year by 2016
  • a new Housing and Planning Delivery Grant which will act as an incentive to reward councils who are delivering high levels of housing and have identified at least five years worth of available land for homes and a further ten year's worth in plans, as required by planning policy
  • new guidance to help local councils identify enough land to deliver the homes needed in their area for the next 15 years, as required by planning policy for housing (as set out in Planning Policy Statement 3). We hope it will encourage private developers to bring forward housing more quickly, and reduce the incentive to hold land back
  • the Homes and Communities Agency has been created which builds on the current successful delivery of programmes by the Housing Corporation, English Partnerships and Communities and Local Government in response to rising demands

The Green Paper also reiterated measures to further reduce the carbon impact of new housing through setting a timetable and strategy for all new homes to be zero carbon by 2016.

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