The UK's most up-to-date social housing and public sector news website
More from TCPA
- Flood risk: England ill-prepared for scale of challenge, warns planning charity
- TCPA calls for new planning framework to unlock rural economy
- Garden City principles key to sustainable new communities
- Government pledges support for locally planned new communities
- Localism Act marks major change to planning system
Advertisement
In response to today’s Budget announcement Town and Country Planning Association Chief Executive Gideon Amos OBE said:
“The TCPA welcomes the Chancellors pledge to spend £500 million to kick-start building on mouthballed housing projects, including £100 million for local authorities to build energy efficient housing. Delivering more homes now is essential through unlocking these developments, but just as importantly we need to ensure there is a planning and construction industry left when the recovery gets under way.”
“Government must also acknowledge that the old model of housebuilding is broken. The reality is that people delivering development now will be in the public or voluntary sector. We need to relearn the skills to deliver large-scale development via the public sector. For key projects Government also need to put in place infrastructure funding to make housing schemes viable – with land values halved these sums will not often be coming from landowners or developers - at least for the immediate future. Failing to provide infrastructure and meet sustainability standards would be failing the future generations whose tax revenues we are already putting into development.”
