Tories rule out forcing councils to build homes

A future Tory government would not intervene to increase the number of houses built, despite pledging to return rates of housebuilding to levels not seen since the last Tory administration.

Jacqui Lait, the shadow planning minister, told Building at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham this week that a Tory government would not force local authorities to increase output if build rates did not match its aspirations.

She said: “We wouldn’t intervene if that was the settled will of the local community – that’s the idea, they have to decide. Top-down doesn’t work.”

Lait’s comments followed an unequivocal statement of support for more housebuilding from Grant Shapps, the shadow housing minister. At a fringe event he said: “We can mess about with whatever schemes of making some housing affordable or intermediate, but we have a choice – either to reduce the population or build more homes.”

Shapps said the expansion of housebuilding would be achieved by scrapping output targets and introducing incentives for councils to build.

We have a choice – either to reduce the population or build more homes

Grant Shapps

He said that Labour’s approach of “railroading through” housing targets had failed to get more homes built in the past 10 years. He said Labour had built on average 30,000 fewer homes a year than the Tories.

The Tories envisage scrapping regional planning documents and returning full power to local authorities to plan development for their area.

In addition, Shapps said section 106 would be adapted to ensure existing residents were prioritised for benefits, and that councils would be allowed to keep council tax receipts from new residents, rather than return them to the Treasury.

Shapps also said the party would scrap the minimum density target of 30 homes a hectare.

But Dan Bridgett, head of external affairs for Barratt Homes, warned that the system of incentives was unlikely to work. He said: “The shortage of housing is principally in London and the South-east, and Tory councils in those areas [were] elected on anti-development tickets.”