The new housing minister, Gavin Barwell, has said that the Government remains committed to building 1m homes.
He has also made it clear that unless there are very special circumstances, they will not be on the Green Belt.
He said: “The Government is committed to the strong protection and enhancement of Green Belt land.
“Within the Green Belt, most new building is inappropriate and should be refused planning permission except in very special circumstances.”
Answering a question in Parliament, he also made clear the focus on home ownership.
He said the Government is committed to a “mixed programme” of different tenures but that 86% of people want to own their own home.
Sajid Javid, the new Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, also emphasised his commitment to protecting the Green Belt.
He described it as “absolutely sacrosanct”.
Meanwhile David Cox and Mark Hayward, managing directors respectively of ARLA and the NAEA, welcomed Barwell to his new post.
In a joint statement, they said: “We would like to congratulate Gavin on his new appointment and welcome him to his new role.
“This is a crucial time for housing, with demand greatly outstripping supply and an urgent need to reshape Britain’s housing mix.
“We worked closely with the previous administration to increase transparency in the UK property and sector, and remain very supportive of the need for a beneficial ownership register.
“Property transparency is particularly a problem in London where housing stock has increasingly become a vehicle for money laundering operations, so we applaud the decision to provide the minister with a dual oversight for London.
“Despite this, Gavin will have a lot in his in-tray and a number of key concerns still exist in the sector.
“The Government’s decision to sell the Land Registry risks reversing its good work on transparency and we call on the new minister to work with the new Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Department to think again on this proposal.
“Secondly, it is also essential that Gavin honours the commitment of his predecessor to bring forward a review of the need for mandatory Client Money Protection (CMP) for letting agents, following the discretionary powers that were brought in as part of the Housing and Planning Act.
“Only this can provide the adequate level of protection for landlords and tenants alike.
“These challenges are not insurmountable and we greatly look forward to working with the new minister to find a solution to these issues in the months and years ahead.”
Yes… They’re always committed…
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Why are they always so committed to something they have no chance of achieving? Wouldn’t it be nice for once if they just stood up and said ” these targets are totally unrealistic”.
Although he has dropped the “by 2020” bit of the 1 million new homes. So I imagine they will get 1 million new homes eventually.
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‘…the Government remains committed to building 1m homes… made it clear that… they will not be on the Green Belt.’
SO… we have the prospect of a million new poky flats chucked up on dodgy ‘brownfield’ sites that were once factories, car parks and demolished tenements.
Whoopeefrickin’doo.
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Good ole’ NAEA – never shy of column inch grabbing opportunities:
‘We worked closely with the previous administration to increase transparency in the UK property and sector… transparency is particularly a problem in London where housing stock has increasingly become a vehicle for money laundering operations’
Yet they keep the results of their own “investigation” into the issue – forced as a result of a VERY public hoo-hah – in a locked drawer.
You couldn’t make it up…
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One MILLION dollars!!!!!
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