Our take on the Housing White Paper

Most people will be aware that the Government recently launched their Housing White paper in a bid to fix “Britain’s broken housing market”.  Here is our abridged version of it compiled with the help of Dataloft UK.

·         The Government has decided that much more emphasis needs to be given to the rental sector in a bid to help “Generation Rent”.  They will encourage major institutional investment in properties built purely for rent as well as attempting to improve the living standards of those already in rental properties and encouraging longer tenancies to be entered into, especially for families.

·         Measures are outlined to accelerate housebuilding on both public and privately owned land.  Land will have to be used more efficiently avoiding low density housing and encouraging higher density in more urban areas.

·         Small and medium sized developers are to be actively encouraged to get involved along with alternative methods of construction such as modular housing which can be prepared off site.  Both methods will be helped by a £3 billion Home Building Fund.  The maximum time limit between planning consent and starting on site is being reduced in the hope this will speed up delivery.

·         In an effort to improve transparency all councils will be required to produce housing demand plans showing how they intend to meet projected growth.  These plans must be updated every five years.  There will also be improved transparency on land ownership via the Land Registry database by 2030.

Follow our property blog for any further updates on this and other issues.