Local Councils Raise Concerns Over Government’s Housing Targets

Local councils have informed the government that its primary initiative, which aims to construct 1.5 million new residences in England over the next five years, is deemed “unrealistic” and “impossible to achieve”, as revealed by the BBC. The vast majority of councils expressed apprehension about the plan during a consultation exercise conducted by Angela Rayner’s housing department earlier this year. These responses, obtained by the BBC through Freedom of Information laws, could potentially lead to a confrontation between local authorities and Labour regarding one of its key priorities. The government has indicated it will respond to the consultation and release revisions before the end of the year. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has placed housebuilding at the core of the government’s objective to stimulate economic growth and address the housing crisis. However, this strategy relies on local authorities adopting targets for new privately-built housing developments within their areas. Many councils acknowledge the necessity for more new homes, but they are concerned about the realism or attainability of the targets assigned to each of the 317 authorities in England. According to BBC analysis of 90% of the consultation responses, these concerns are shared by Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrat-led authorities. Many fear that the algorithm used to calculate these targets has not adequately considered strains on local infrastructure, land shortages, and insufficient capacity within the planning system and construction industry. Broxtowe council in Nottinghamshire, which is Labour-run, described the proposed changes as “very challenging, if not impossible to achieve”. South Tyneside, another Labour-run council, stated the plans were “wholly unrealistic”, while the independent-run council in Central Bedfordshire commented that the area would be left “absolutely swamped with growth that the infrastructure just can not support”. In some instances, the housing targets differ significantly from those established by the previous government, with rural areas expected to bear a greater proportion of the burden compared to inner-city authorities. Some parts of London have experienced a reduction in their targets. In rural West Lancashire, the annual housing target for the Labour-run borough council would escalate from 166 new dwellings to 605 under the proposed new system. Deputy leader Gareth Dowling agrees with the general need for increased housebuilding after “years of stagnation”, but stated his area was already constructing its “fair share”. “I don’t think the land is actually available here to build that much housing on,” he said, “unless you were to go and build specifically on arable farmland”. Dowling asserted that the new method for determining targets would also not align with the housing need in West Lancashire and urged ministers to “have a look at the responses” to the consultation “and see what’s been said”. Current housing targets are largely based on projections concerning future population levels in a local area. Instead of regularly updating targets as these projections changed, the last Conservative government opted to fix housing targets based on projections made in 2014. The Labour government claims this has resulted in targets that would neither resolve the country’s current housing crisis nor foster significant economic growth. They advocate for new home targets to be based on the existing number of houses in an area and their affordability, rather than on the anticipated future population. This change in methodology is what led Dowling to claim the new targets will not match housing need, a concern echoed in urban areas. Thirty miles east, in the city of Salford in Greater Manchester, the Labour-run local authority has warned the government that its approach “loses any connection with future demographic change and is divorced from need”. Paul Dennett, the city’s mayor, told the BBC that sensible housebuilding plans should not be based solely on numbers. “It’s about looking at your housing waiting list,” he said, “it’s about looking at the impacts around homelessness and rough sleeping, and building the homes that communities and residents need.” He called on the government not to “control this agenda from Westminster and Whitehall”, and to allow more flexibility in the new system so councils can consider specific issues in their area. Councils are responsible for granting planning permission for new homes, but they primarily rely on the private sector for construction, a factor many local authorities stated the government’s new targets did not account for. Neil Jefferson, the chief executive of the Home Builders Federation, informed the BBC that the planning changes were “very positive”. However, he also stated that ministers needed to “do more to support prospective buyers”, provide greater access to “suitable” mortgages, and ensure that local authority planning departments “have sufficient capacity to process applications”. Labour has indicated its willingness to overrule local councils’ objections to achieve its goal of delivering 1.5 million homes by 2029, underscoring the importance it places on housebuilding for economic growth. Many local authorities that participated in the consultation supported the principle of constructing more homes, and a small number were in favour of the specific plans put forward by the government. In Oxford, the city council hopes the ambitious new targets will lead to the additional housing that councillors say the area requires. The planned changes would necessitate Oxford building an additional 24,000 homes. Louise Upton, the local cabinet member for planning, stated that the council could accommodate 10,000 of these, and expressed hope that the new rules would increase the likelihood of surrounding councils taking on the other 14,000 and allowing the city to expand. “When you are a tightly constrained city like ours is, actually bursting at the seams, you need your surrounding districts to collaborate with you to get the housing that you need,” she said. “So I think the government’s plan for these new homes is ambitious, but it is achievable. It has to be achievable.” In July, Housing Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner told MPs that the government would be even more ambitious than initially anticipated, and would “rise from some 300,000 a year to just over 370,000 a year”. If all councils were to meet that target, it would result in significantly more homes than the 1.5 million pledge made by the government. However, last Wednesday, housing minister Matthew Pennycook informed a select committee that the government would not be imposing national annual targets in the manner suggested by Rayner. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government stated: “This is the worst housing crisis in living memory, and in order to fix this we need to build 1.5 million homes.“That’s why we have introduced mandatory housing targets for councils and laid out clear plans to support their delivery, including by changing planning rules to allow homes to be built on grey belt land and recruiting 300 additional planning officers.” The Local Government Association has called on the government to “give councils the tools we need to help build these much-needed new homes”. Adam Hug, the LGA’s housing spokesman, added that “any national algorithms and formulas would strongly benefit from local knowledge” provided by the people who “know their areas best”. 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