Sajid Javid says government will directly intervene in local councils not publishing housebuilding plans

Sajid Javid has said the Government is poised to directly intervene in the housebuilding plans of 15 local authorities across England in order to tackle the “broken” housing market.

Putting authorities “on notice” and warning that a lack of sufficient progress will “no longer be tolerated” by his department, Mr Javid said they had until the end of January 2018 to put forward their housebuilding plans.

In a written statement to the Commons, the Communities Secretary said that not enough has been done by some local authorities in planning for the homes they need.

Among them is Runnymede, the Conservative-led council, within the Chancellor Philip Hammond’s parliamentary constituency.

“Up-to-date plans, including local plans, are essential because they provide clarity to communities and developers about where homes should be built and where not, so that development is planned rather than the result of speculative applications,” he said. “At present too few places have an up-to-date plan.”

He said 15 local planning authorities have failed in their duty to cooperate and meet deadlines, including Basildon, Brentwood, Bolsover, Calderdale, Castle Point, Eastleigh, Liverpool, Mansfield, North East Derbyshire, Northumberland, Runnymede, St Albans, Thanet, Wirral and York.

In the written statement he added: “I am writing today to give the local authorities the opportunity to put forward any exceptional circumstances, by 31 January 2018, which, in their view, justify their failure to produce a Local Plan under the 2004 Act regime. I will take responses received into account before any final decisions on intervention are taken.

“The remaining authorities who are not making progress on their plan-making and fail to publish a plan for consultation, submit a plan to examination or to keep policies in plans up to date are on notice that consistent failure to make sufficient progress will no longer be tolerated. My Department will begin formally considering the case for intervention as deadlines are missed.

But responding to the announcement John Healey, the shadow housing minister, said: “Two years ago the Government promised action on local plans by ‘early 2017’. Today the Communities Secretary has revealed any Government response will be delayed until January 2018 at the earliest.”

He continued: “The truth is it’s ministers’ chop and change planning policies that are causing these delays in the plan-making process, as their own expert advisers have shown.

“Rather than trying to shift blame on to local councils, ministers should take responsibility for their own record and back Labour’s plan to tackle the housing crisis.”

The intervention came after figures released by Mr Javid’s department showed that 217,350 homes were built in 2016-17 – an increase of 15 per cent on the previous year.

It is the highest number of “net additional dwellings” built since the financial crash but still fell short of the 250,000 housing charity Shelter claims are needed each year to tackle the shortage in England.

The Prime Minister said she was “pleased” with the figures but acknowledged “there’s more we can do” as addressed the housing crisis on a visit to Stonegrove and Spur Road estate in north London.

“The Government is clear, we want more people to have the security of a roof over their head, their own home for themselves and their family,” she said. “What I want to see though is, we know there are lots of planning permissions out there, I want to see the houses being built.”