Local communities are expected to develop robust plans to build new affordable housing for the next five years, as part of the Planning Minister’s desire to ease the pressure on the housing market.
Nick Boles announced at the Policy Exchange that Britain needs to be building 270,000 new homes per year in order to ease the backlog of first time buyers, who have been priced out of the housing market due to high prices. However, only 147,000 new properties were being built on average per year from 2000 to 2010.
If the housing market does not accommodate the growing number of potential buyers, Boles warns home ownership in the UK may ‘revert to what it was in the 19th Century: a privilege, the exclusive preserve of people with large incomes or wealthy parents.’
The solution, he feels, is to build on the large amounts of Greenfield lands (rural undeveloped land), of which ‘we’ve got plenty of undistinguished, undeveloped land to spare.’ Communities will be given financial incentives of up to £300,000 for creating housing development plans, or risk the government removing them from the NPPF (National Planning Policy Framework).
If it is successful, the housing market should see a significant number of new affordable homes. As such, there may be an increase in applications for new build mortgages within the next five years.
