‘We have a shortage of planners and the key question is how do we get them in place in local councils we need more than just 300…’
Labour MP Chris Curtis says that it’s become ‘too difficult to build anything in Britain’ as he set out what needs to happen for the government to hit its target of building 1.5 million new homes in England across the course of the current Parliament.
With a severe housing shortage, the government has pledged to hit the 1.5 million target, bringing in changes such as housing targets for councils and making it easier to build on green belt land. The OBR says that the changes could result in 1.3 million new homes across the UK by the end of the decade.
Speaking at the UKreiif conference in Leeds today, Curtis was asked by Jack Shaw, Chair of the Labour Housing Group, whether he thought that the government was still on course to meet its target and what more needed to be done to make sure it did so.
The MP for Milton Keynes North said it was welcome news that the government had made the changes to get Britain building again, including to the National Planning Policy Framework, which re-introduced mandatory housing targets, as well as encouraging higher densities in sustainable urban areas.
He went on to highlight the need to tackle the main barriers to building, including a shortage of planners, the need for more builders and construction workers as well as supporting housing associations, and ensuring that building safety regulations work to ensure they do not hinder developments.
Curtis told the audience: “We have a shortage of planners and the key question is how do we get them in place in local councils we need more than just 300, we need 3,000 planners and we need them in place across local authorities.”
He also went on to add: “We need to look at building safety regulations, it isn’t working”, saying that it was holding up construction of high rise buildings, particularly in London and we need to ‘make sure it is working as intended to.”
Curtis was also hopeful that the devolution agenda would mean a further boost in housebuilding, by moving ‘power out of chaos of Westminster and Whitehall and to new institutions’.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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