Tristan Samuels, Group Development and New Business Director at VIVID, responds to the Government’s announcement concerning changes to the planning rules to create more homes in city centres.
We support the change in planning rules to create more homes in city centres, but government planning policy still falls short of enabling many more affordable homes to be built according to local need.
The housing market remains fundamentally out of kilter with people’s earnings, both in terms of renting and owning. The cost-of-living crisis is putting even more pressure onto households on the lowest incomes and the lack of affordable renting options is deepening homelessness and the number of people living in temporary accommodation. This is why we back the National Housing Federation’s call for 90,000 more social rented homes a year to address the shortage. Last year we delivered 1,390 new homes with 89% of them being affordable.
Our view is that the right types of homes need to be built in the right places. Mixed and balanced communities create liveable high quality places where people thrive and aspire to live across a range of tenures, including social rented. We also believe more consideration needs to be given to reviewing planning policy within the green belt to take into account where there are challenges in land supply.
