Government announces a package of housing measures
On 4 July 2015, the Prime Minister and Chancellor set out a package of measures intended to accelerate house building over the next 5 years which will form part of the Housing Bill to be introduced in the autumn. Ref Gov.uk PM and Chancellor announce 'one nation' plans to spread homeownership across the country.
The plans include:
- A requirement that all ‘reasonable-sized’ developments include ‘starter homes’ exclusively for first-time buyers under 40, at a 20% discount.
- A new duty for councils to make sure they include starter homes in their future housing plans.
- Extension of the Help to Buy scheme to 2020.
- Placing a duty on councils to help allocate land to people who want to build their own home. From April 2016, councils must hold a register of custom and self builders who require land in their area and must make sure they look to provide land to meet their needs.
- A new Housing Growth Partnership that will invest alongside smaller builders in new developments.
- Investing £400m, match-funded by the Mayor of London, to create 30 brownfield Housing Zones.
- Giving local people more of a say on where new homes go and what they look like.
- Taking action on councils that have failed to produce a plan for the homes their community needs.
- Pressing ahead with plans to give housing association tenants the chance to buy their own home at a discount of up to 70%.
- Continuing to unlock public land for new homes.
The PM and Chancellor said: “We don’t want this to be a country where if you’re rich you can buy a home, but if you’re less well off, you can’t. We want it to be one nation, where whoever you are, you can get on in life… Of course, there will be opponents – but we are determined to take them on… It’s simple: you are either pro-reform or not; for building homes, or not; on the side of young people, or not.”
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