Solutions For The UK Housing Crisis…
Will the current measures fare any better than the previous proposals of UK planning reforms?
As the population grows, so does our collective inability to construct adequate housing. The yearly objective of building 300,000 new dwellings has been repeatedly missed.
However, a number of local authorities are now being offered the opportunity to become investment zones, which will make the planning procedure for housebuilding much easier. That is, some regulations (such as affordable housing) or levies relating to environmental or infrastructural projects (such as Section 106) may be eliminated. (I’ll save the debate about sustainability and population increase for another day.)
Nobody wants to live close to a construction site or have a brand-new estate… However, the country must make difficult decisions in order to address the UK housing issue.
Bold innovation in inner-city regeneration (think London Docklands) is crucial, but it is only one component of a much larger solution. Obviously, not everyone wants to live in a city.
So, although streamlining the planning process by reducing red tape and incentivising developers is critical (even if locally driven)… the uneasy question of where to build remains…
