Labour has been in office for six years, but only in February this year did it finally grasp the nettle on housing and regeneration policy. One of the most striking aspects of deputy prime minister John Prescott's newly minted Communities Plan was his assertion that all governments over the past 30 years, including his own, had got housing policy wrong. That assertion – and arguably the lack of investment in its first term – came back to haunt the government this week with the publication of the Treasury-commissioned Barker review.

Here, in the clearest possible terms, the woeful undersupply of affordable homes is set out, along with the reasons for it. In fact, we all knew the problems: scarcity of land; a torpid and overly complex planning system and an over-reliance on planning gain to deliver affordable homes.

The government is already acting to address these problems with a host of measures that include more money, new growth areas, urban development corporations and a new role for English Partnerships as a quasi-housebuilder. All good ideas and, as we report this week on page 16, the ODPM's new director of sustainable communities, Richard McCarthy, is confident they will deliver the "step change" called for by Prescott earlier in the year. But as with transport, so with housing. Prescott's proposals, by Barker's reckoning, could be too little too late.

Barker admits there are no easy answers – and in any case her recommendations will come in the spring in the second part of her review. The single recommendation was the setting up of a low tax investment vehicle called real estate investment trusts to encourage private sector investment on a large scale in rented housing.

Prescott’s proposals, by Barker’s reckoning, could be too little too late

The chancellor's response to this is welcome. Not only could it bring in new investors to the sector but also, says Lord Best of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, provide another means for housing associations to fund development and bring more management opportunities (page 9).

Barker's conclusion that "making a real difference to the supply of housing may require a robust set of policies" is a stark one. More sticks and carrots for local authorities to meet their housing obligations under the regional planning guidance and perhaps release land designated for industrial use for housebuilding is what social housing providers have long been calling for.

Source

Housing Today