1 in 5 fewer houses started under the Tories
2nd November 2011
Alan Whitehead MP has pressed the government over the revelation that there are almost 1 in 5 fewer homes starting along the construction process since the Tories’ flagship new housing policy came into effect.
New Government figures show in the last quarter both new planning permission and new housing starts have fallen dramatically. New housing starts in the second quarter of 2011 are down 9% on the previous quarter and over 18% on the same quarter in 2010.
This coincides with the government’s introduction of the New Homes Bonus, which they claimed would incentivise new house-building and compensate for the dramatic cuts in direct funding to house-building projects across the country.
In addition to this drop in new home starts, the number of residential planning permissions granted in England in the three months to June fell by a quarter to just over 25,000 - the second lowest since the start of the recession, 23 per cent down on the same three-month period in 2010, and were down 24% on the first quarter of 2011.
In the Commons earlier this week, Dr Whitehead pressed the government to revise the implementation of the New Homes Bonus based on these shocking figures. He asked Grant Shapps, Minister for Housing & Local Government:
“Will the Secretary of State confirm the really startling figures from the first quarter of the operation of the new homes bonus, which show that new home starts went down by 18% compared with the same period last year, and that residential planning permissions went down by 23% compared with that same period? If he can confirm that those figures are correct, will he tell us what plans he has to revise the mechanisms of the new homes bonus?”
Mr Shapps chose not to agree to any change to current government policy.
Speaking after the debate, Dr Whitehead said:
“We’re now beginning to see how deeply flawed the New Homes Bonus really is. It doesn’t deliver the new homes people in Southampton desperately need and- even worse- it effectively redistributes funding away from social housing tenants in Southampton to greener, wealthier parts of the country. It’s the wrong level of funding going to the wrong places.
“Labour has put forward a costed plan to increase house-building through a higher tax on bankers bonuses. I’ll continue to push for this in Parliament and to get the government to recognise how inadequate their current policies are to the housing crisis we face.”
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