Too few new homes: where does the blame lie?

Not with councils, and not with the planning system, as an article on Liberal Democrat Voice shows. Planning is a devolved matter, but Ruth Dombey's evidence is as applicable to Wales as it is to England. Admittedly, the Conservative government in Westminster is keen to divert attention from the failings of the private sector, but centralising Labour in Cardiff has questions to answer, too. Ms Dombey sums up:

The Local Government Association is calling on the Government to use its forthcoming planning white paper to give councils powers to take action on unbuilt land which has planning permission.

This includes making it easier to compulsory purchase land where homes remain unbuilt, and to be able to charge developers full council tax for every unbuilt development from the point that the original planning permission expires.

With the right powers and funding, the LGA is convinced that councils can play a lead role in helping the Government tackle our national housing shortage.

As part of its submission to the Treasury ahead of next month’s Budget, the LGA is also calling for the Government to reform Right to Buy, by allowing councils to keep all of the receipts of homes sold under RTB to replace them and to have the flexibility to set discounts locally. We as Liberal Democrats also want to see Councils given additional powers to force developers to build out the sites with planning permission.

The planning system is not a barrier to house building. The number of homes granted planning permission has far outpaced the number of homes being built.

One other factor which needs to be addressed is the land bank built up by the big supermarkets, especially Tesco, either anticipating growth in their business or preventing rivals gaining access to that land. Successive economic downturns and the aggressive competition of the German discounters have changed the scene, and it now seems as if Tesco and Sainsbury are into the house-building business.