Early evening summary
Labour has said that plans announced by Michael Gove today intended to boost housebuilding don’t “come close to matching the scale of ambition needed to fix the housing crisis”. (See 5.50pm.)
Updated
Gove's plans unlikely to make significant difference to supply of houses, experts claim
The Labour criticism of Michael Gove’s housing plans (see 5.50pm) matches what the National Housing Federation said about them earlier (see 9.34am).
Other specialists are similarly underwhelmed. Here are comments from three who have submitted reaction to the media.
From Stuart Baillie, head of planning at Knight Frank, a property consultancy
[The plan to make it easier for shops to be turned into homes] is unlikely to have meaningful impact on housing supply. It’s likely that the output of this policy will only create hundreds of new homes, instead of the many thousands needed to make a real impact on the UK’s significant housing shortage. This policy will only paper over the cracks, instead of getting to the heart of the issue facing the UK’s overburdened and under-resourced planning system. In many instances, residential amenity would be compromised by a town centre location – particularly ground floor retail – meaning conversion or redevelopment would be limited to fringe and out-of-town areas.
Local planning authorities will be very concerned that the proposals could create a loss of retail capacity, impact local retail amenity and reduce the vitality of already struggling town centres that have fallen victim to the rise of online shopping in recent years.
From Victoria Du Croz, head of planning and a partner at Forsters, a law firm specialising in real estate
A focus on inner cities makes sense, given the Conservative’s aversion to delivering development on the green belt, but the reality of bringing more homes to the cities will mean building high in order to reach the necessary density. Neither brownfield sites or conversions of office to residential have delivered the number of new homes that are needed across the country to date.
Re-focusing on these planning mechanisms, by expanding permitted development rights to shop and commercial conversions, is unlikely to boost housing numbers to the levels that are needed.
From Oli Creasey, a property research analyst at Quilter Cheviot, a wealth management firm
The government has today announced further changes to the planning system in an effort to boost house building and conversions, specifically aimed at urban regeneration. Unfortunately, like much of the housing policy that has come before, it is somewhat of a damp squib …
We will await further details on the proposals, but our initial view is that this is unlikely to have a significant impact on the number of planning approvals, or the number of homes built. And while this policy isn’t designed to line the pockets of the housebuilders, they do have an interest in these proposals and as such it is important to watch how their share prices reacted to the news. The fact that these share prices have been largely unchanged this morning tells you all you need to know – nothing will really change and the chronic shortfall of housing in the UK will continue.
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Gove's housing plans don't match 'scale of ambition needed to fix housing crisis', Labour says
Turning back to housing, and Labour says the plans announced by Michael Gove today won’t deliver the housing the country needs. Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling up secretary, said:
The government has never met its target to build 300,000 homes a year and today’s announcement doesn’t come close to matching the scale of ambition needed to fix the housing crisis.
Families and young people desperate to get on the housing ladder deserve to know what assessment the Government made of Rishi Sunak’s reckless decision to scrap housing targets, which has pushed housebuilding off a cliff.
Penny Mordaunt rejects claims government dragging its feet on compensation to infected blood victims
Penny Mordaunt has said she does not believe the government has been dragging its feet on the issue of paying full compensation to those affected by the NHS infected blood scandal, PA Media reports. PA says:
She was giving evidence to the infected blood inquiry, as bereaved relatives of victims of the scandal called on the government to pay wider compensation.
The current Commons Leader, formerly the minister responsible for the infected blood inquiry as paymaster general between February 2020 and September 2021, insisted there was “no let-up” in her time in the role.
But she also described how she had tried and failed to secure a meeting with then chancellor Rishi Sunak and other Treasury ministers about preparing for the possibility of paying compensation in 2020, with government bandwidth “very stretched” by the pandemic.
Mordaunt said the Covid pandemic had been an “all-consuming” issue, and there was a “pretty chaotic situation” at the Treasury and Department of Health at the time.
Concerns of delays in the government’s approach to compensation were put to Ms Mordaunt, and she was asked if, hypothetically, the government was deliberately dragging its feet, whether that would be morally objectionable.
Mordaunt replied saying “yes”, it would be, but added: “That has not been my experience in my current role.”
Elsewhere in her evidence, she said: “I do not think there is any delay to moving as quickly as we can on these matters, and it would have been pointless to have set up this inquiry and the [compensation framework] study not to then proceed with making redress.”
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, acted unlawfully in failing to provide basic support to asylum seekers, including young children and pregnant women, a judge has ruled. Diane Taylor has the story here.
BBC's business editor apologises to Farage for report saying his bank account closed for commercial, not political, reasons
Simon Jack, the BBC’s respected business editor, has issued an apology to Nigel Farage on Twitter for his report saying that Farage’s account at Coutts was closed because he did not have enough money in it and not, as Farage was claiming at the time, because of his political views.
The information on which we based our reporting on Nigel Farage and his bank accounts came from a trusted and senior source. However the information turned out to be incomplete and inaccurate. Therefore I would like to apologise to Mr Farage.
The information on which we based our reporting on Nigel Farage and his bank accounts came from a trusted and senior source. However the information turned out to be incomplete and inaccurate. Therefore I would like to apologise to Mr Farage.
— Simon Jack (@BBCSimonJack) July 24, 2023
Jack issued his apology two days after Farage said he would be demanding an apology from the BBC.
A personal apology of this kind from a senior BBC journalist is unusual, particularly when it involves good faith and accurate reporting of something said by a trusted source – which is what Jack says happened in this case.
Deborah Turness, the BBC News CEO, has also written to Farage to say sorry, the BBC reports.
Jack’s original report made headlines because at the time Farage was saying he was having his account closed for political reasons by a bank he would not name, and no one was saying that that was not true. Jack said that the bank was Coutts, and that Farage’s account was in fact being closed because he did not have enough money in it.
Subsequently Farage used a subject access request to obtain information from Coutts showing that the bank did not want him as a customer because of his views and his values. By the time the account was closed it had fallen below the commercial criteria used by Coutts, but the documentation implies this was not the main reason for the account being closed.
Jack’s original report, which he said was based on information from “people familiar with the matter”, said it was purely a commercial decison.
On Friday last week Jack posted a message on Twitter saying the original story had been changed online to make it clear that, when it said Farage’s account had been closed for commercial reasons, the BBC was quoting what had been said be a source.
The headline on the Farage story has been clarified and an update posted. It should have been clearer at the top that the reason for Mr Farage’s account being closed was commercial - was what a source told the BBC. That has been corrected.
The headline on the Farage story has been clarified and an update posted. It should have been clearer at the top that the reason for Mr Farage's account being closed was commercial - was what a source told the BBC. That has been corrected.
— Simon Jack (@BBCSimonJack) July 21, 2023
But that prompted rightwing papers to run stories about Jack “failing to apologise”.
As is customary for a journalist in receipt of confidential information, Jack has not revealed his source.
But it has been widely reported that, the day before he ran his story, he sat next to Dame Alison Rose, chief executive of NatWest, which owns Coutts, at a charity dinner.
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Chris Venables, deputy political director at the Green Alliance thinktank, has criticised government and opposition leaders for suggesting they might scale back some green policies in the light of the Uxbridge byelection result, which has been widely attributed to voter backlash against the extension of the ultra-low emissions zone.
Referring to the language Sunak used this morning (see 11.12am), Venables said:
The only ‘proportional and pragmatic’ response to the climate crisis to pull every lever we can and use every weapon in our arsenal to get to net zero.
It is disappointing to see the government and the opposition hesitate on this over the weekend, especially during a period of extreme weather, and in the face of all the evidence saying that acting now will save lives, rebuild our economy, and protect the future of the planet.
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Youngest life peer Charlotte Owen takes seat in House of Lords
Charlotte Owen, who was the youngest person on record to be nominated for a life peerage when when she was included in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list at the age of 29, has been introduced in the House of Lords. In accordance with the normal ceremony, a clerk read out a message from the king saying Owen was being elevated to the “state, degree, style, dignity, title and honour of Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge”.
Owen’s peerage has attracted criticism partly because of her age and partly because of her lack of experience – she just spent a short time as a relatively junior aide in No 10. But Johnson also gave a seat in the Lords to Ross Kempsell, 31, who served as a No 10 aide and political director at CCHQ, and who now works as Johnson’s press officer, and yet the Kempsell peerage has attracted considerably less media comment.
As life peers Owen and Kempsell can claim £342 per day on the days when they attend the House of Lords for parliamentary work and it is sitting, and they will keep their peerages for life. In theory this means they could continue to vote on legislation for the next half century, or longer. But Labour says it wants to abolish the House of Lords, and so they could find their careers as legislators ending much earlier.
Ben Houchen, the Tees Valley mayor, another name on Johnson’s honours list, also took his seat in the Lords this afternoon. At 36, he is not exactly an elder statesman either, but he has held his mayoral post since 2017.
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Rishi Sunak flew to Birmingham by helicopter for his visit to a housing project this morning, Pippa Crerar reports.
🚁Rishi Sunak travelled to the West Midlands this morning by helicopter, No 10 confirms.
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) July 24, 2023
Fastest train from London to Birmingham is 1 hour 32 mins 🚄
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) July 24, 2023
Two thinktanks have welcomed Michael Gove’s call for more “densification” (his term) of housing in cities and urban areas.
This is from Ant Breach, an analyst at the Centre for Cities
A key part of the UK’s housing troubles is that its most successful cities are too low-rise and they lack mid-rise apartment buildings, especially compared to their European counterparts. So it’s encouraging to see the government take steps to change this across 20 different cities – both for the economy and for the environment.
But densification won’t solve all their problems. Cities will need to expand outwards too, and this means green belt reform is essential. Only by building both up and out of cities will we start to close the gap on England’s 4.3m missing homes.
And these are from Sebastian Payne, head of the centre-right thinktank Onward
@michaelgove’s speech on pragmatic but ambitious housebuilding this morning is much delayed and much welcomed. Greater urban density is something we’ve long called for at @ukonward and we’re delighted to see it front and centre of the planning agenda.
Gove referenced Margaret Thatcher *and* Michael Heseltine, which speaks to the flexible ideology needed to resolve our housing crisis. The lessons from Docklands and Teesside development corporations is that it is vital to empower local communities to encourage investment.
Some quarters accuse the Conservatives of abandoning the needs and opportunities of cities – Gove made it very clear this morning this is wrongheaded with his focus on boosting housing in London and Leeds, as well as Sheffield, Wolverhampton and Cambridge.
🧵 @michaelgove's speech on pragmatic but ambitious housebuilding this morning is much delayed and much welcomed.
— Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) July 24, 2023
Greater urban density is something we've long called for at @ukonward and we're delighted to see it front and centre of the planning agenda.
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Trade bodies covering housing seem unimpressed by Michael Gove’s speech this morning.
This is from Brian Berry, chief executive of the Federation of Master Builders, which represents SME building companies.
A plan for more housing is very welcome and hopefully it will go some way to get housing numbers back on track. It’s positive to see a focus on brownfield sites which are the mainstay of SME housebuilders, but the planning system also needs to be fixed to ensure that these developments become a reality. Too many SME housebuilders are stuck in planning purgatory which stops the delivery of housing and employment opportunities in their communities.
And this is from Nathan Emerson, CEO of Propertymark, a body representing estate agents.
The UK government’s commitment to building more homes is disappointing. In order to provide the homes the country needs, plans need to be more ambitious and government must go faster and further to achieve this.
Avoiding a fragmented approach is key, as well as having housing targets that are linked to tenure to meet the demand in different areas across the country. Housing reforms must also reflect societal change, help tackle the climate emergency, involve the tax system, meet the needs of older people and ultimately provide more affordable options, whilst protecting the green belt.
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Shelter, the homelessness charity, said the government’s plan to make it easier for shops to be turned into flats and houses (see 2.07pm and 2.28pm) won’t provide the genuinely affordable homes the country needs. In a statement Polly Neate, Shelter’s chief executive, said:
Converting takeaways and shops into homes and restricting building to city centres won’t help. It could risk creating poor quality, unsafe homes that cause more harm than good.
When we are losing more social housing than we build, the government must work with councils to deliver the quality homes local communities across the country need.
The housing journalist Vicky Spratt has expressed concern about the government’s plan to expand permitted development rights. (See 2.07pm.) The British Property Federation, which represents companies involved in real estate, has also warned that quality is important. In a statement its chief executive, Melanie Leech, said:
The BPF has supported permitted development rights to accelerate the conversion of redundant retail and commercial space and revitalise high streets, but ‘quality control’ is critical. Not all commercial buildings are suitable for conversion to homes, and the priority must be to ensure that we are creating good quality homes where people want to live. Greater use of PDR must be just one element of an integrated strategy to create thriving town and city centres.
The full text of Michael Gove’s housing speech is now on the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities’ website.
Updated
Vicky Spratt, the i’s housing correspondent, says that allowing shops to be converted to homes, as the government is proposing in its plan today (see 9.12am), can result in people living in sub-standard accommodation.
Is expanding permitted development rights - which has allowed the conversion of thousands of offices into substandard homes - good? Look at the conditions these families are forced to endure in my @theipaper report from February and make up your own mind...https://t.co/K1MU1reGpX
— Vicky Spratt (@Victoria_Spratt) July 24, 2023
Reminder that the Housing Secretary, Michael Gove, himself told me he thought these conditions were "deeply concerning" when I told him and his team what I had uncovered...https://t.co/lIbx67NGH5
— Vicky Spratt (@Victoria_Spratt) July 24, 2023
The Cambridge Labour party, which runs the city council, has said it is still unclear after Michael Gove’s speech what the government’s plan for Cambridge is. It is urging him to have a “serious and open conversation” with local leaders about the project.
In a statement it says:
The government must recognise the serious issues which we have consistently raised as we develop our emerging local plan, most notably the water crisis, lack of transport infrastructure, and a continuing housing shortage. We urgently need the government to commit to all necessary measures to resolve this. This includes measures to reduce domestic, industrial and agricultural abstraction of water use and investment to clean our rivers and chalk streams …
Cambridge Labour has a vision for a sustainable and beautiful city, with enhanced green spaces, and good quality housing. While it’s important that we unlock business potential, we need to ensure this benefits all residents in our fantastic city.
Increasingly the Green party has been winning council seats, and votes, in rural areas where residents are concerned about the impact of housing developments. In response to Michael Gove’s speech this morning, the Green co-leader Carla Denyer said she was glad the government recognised the importance of brownfield development. But she also said a “massive increase” in social and council housing was needed.
She said:
Following our excellent showing in some Tory strongholds we are pleased to see that the government plans to prioritise building on brownfield sites. But [Michael Gove] utterly failed to push for the right homes at the right price.
His speech comes on the same day an investigation reveals that there are now more than 1.2 million families on the waiting list for properties and that the majority of local authorities have failed to build a single council home in the past five years.
Too often speculators and developers are building their profits rather than the houses local people actually need. What is required is a massive increase in local affordable social and council housing built to the highest environmental standards so they cut household energy bills and reduce carbon emissions.
The Greens have set out their approach to housing in a right homes, right place, right price charter.
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Updated
No 10 refuses to say exactly when government plans to meet its target for building 300,000 new homes per year
And this is what was said at the Downing Street lobby briefing on other issues.
Housing
The prime minister’s spokesperson (PMS) said the government had already delivered 70% of the 1m new homes promised this parliament in the 2019 Conservative manifesto. The target is for 1m new homes to be “delivered”, the PMS said.
But he refused to say exactly when the government would achieve its target of building 300,000 new homes a year. In their 2019 manifesto the Tories said they wanted to achieve this “by the mid-2020s”. The PMS said the government “wants to continue the progress” towards that commitment. Asked if that was the same as standing by the commitment, the PMS said it was. Asked what “by the mid-2020s” meant, the PMS said that had not been specified. He said on average 230,000 homes had been built a year since 2010.
He said the government was looking “with urgency” at the nutrient neutrality rules that are holding back some housing developments.
He said the Cambridge delivery group (see 10.12am) would consider the water issue highlighted by the Tory MP Anthony Browne when he said the government’s housebuilding plans for the city were doomed to fail (see 9.58am).
Rhodes
The PMS defended not discouraging Britons from going to Rhodes after it sent a Foreign Office team to help holidaymakers amid fires. The spokesperson said:
Our advice is focused on the safety of British nationals and enabling people to make an informed decision about the situation on the ground.
The current situation is impacting on a limited area in Rhodes, and whilst it’s right to keep it under review and it’s possible that the advice may change we do not want to act out of proportion to the situation on the ground.
The PMS said there were “not currently” plans to get the RAF to help people leave Rhodes.
Horizon
The PMS said the government was still discussing with the EU whether the UK will rejoin its Horizon science research programme. He said the government retained the option of using the Pioneer programme as an alternative.
Barbie
The PMS said he had not had a chance to ask the PM yet if he enjoyed Barbie. Sunak tweeted about going to see the movie with his family at the weekend.
Government business
The PMS also announced government business for today. As well as the Michael Gove speech, Gove and the Welsh secretary are at the Royal Welsh Show; DfE is announcing plans for new SEND schools; and DfT has announced a seafarers’ charter.
Updated
No 10 says, as 'technology evolves', some net zero policies could change
Here are the main lines from the Downing Street lobby briefing on green/net zero policies.
No 10 remains committed to banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, the prime minister’s spokesperson (PMS) said. (See 12.15pm.)
The PMS also said the government remained committed to banning new gas boiler installations by 2035. “That remains our commitment,” he said when asked about it. But he conceded that policy might change as technology developed. He said:
It is right that we consider how technology evolves … as we progress towards 2035.
And he suggested this was true of other net zero policies. He said:
These are long-term commitments for a long-term problem. It is right, if the situation changes and technology evolves, we keep our position under review … Obviously we would update if there were any changes.
The PMS dismissed suggestions that No 10’s thinking on net zero policies had changed since the Uxbridge byelection. “I’m not aware of any change in policy since [the byelection],” he said.
But the PMS confirmed that the timetable for the introduction of tighter energy-efficiency measures for landlords could be lengthened, allowing them more time to adapt. Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, signalled this in an interview published yesterday.
The PMS also did not rule out measures to limit the introduction of low traffic neighbourhoods. Asked if this would happen, the PMS replied:
The government’s view is that they need to work for local people. We have seen some councils remove LTNs when they don’t work for people.
The PMS denied claims that Sunak is not personally interested in net zero policies. When this was put to him, he said Sunak set up a new government department covering net zero. And the UK is showing leadership in this area, he claimed.
No 10 in effect ruled out a referendum on net zero policies. Yesterday the Sunday Telegraph proposed one in a leader article. Nigel Farage, the former Ukip and Brexit party leader, has been campaigning for one too. Asked about the idea, the PMS said:
I don’t think there are any plans to have a referendum on our 2050 target.
No 10 says it remains committed to banning sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 amid Tory pressure for rethink
The Downing Street lobby briefing has just finished. And No 10 remains committed to banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, the prime minister’s spokesperson said. Rishi Sunak was slightly evasive when asked about this in an interview this morning. (See 11.12am.) Asked if the government was still committed to banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, the PMS said: “That remains our commitment.”
But the spokesperson did confirm what Sunak said this morning about the government wanting to implement net zero policies in a pragmatic way.
I will post a full summary from the briefing shortly.
Updated
Tory internal 'turmoil' has delayed party's implementation of measures to tackle Islamophobia, report says
The chaos at the top of the Conservatives caused delays in fulfilling plans to tackle Islamophobia and other forms of discrimination in the party, an independent reviewer has said. PA Media says:
Prof Swaran Singh said the “turmoil” has affected the Tories’ ability to undertake the reforms he called for in his original inquiry into the issue.
The former equality and human rights commissioner’s review, published this morning, found the implementation of some of his recommendations has been “slow”.
Training at the local level is “mixed”, and the large amount of documentation in response to the investigation has not necessarily improved “awareness or action on the ground”.
No formal process has been put in place to handle complaints of discriminatory behaviour involving the party’s most senior members, the review found.
Individuals coming forward with allegations were also said to need better care.
“Politics is a rough business, but there is no reason why the complaints process should be indifferent or abrasive to the experience of individuals involved,” the report said.
The churn at the top of the Tories was said to have had an “unavoidable impact on the day-to-day running” of the party.
Singh told the PA news agency: “It just took forever for them to focus on this.”
Since he completed his report in May 2021, Boris Johnson was forced out as prime minister, as was his immediate successor, Liz Truss, in a period of tumult.
In the report, Singh wrote: “The two years since the publication of the report have seen considerable political upheaval in the UK. In that time, the Conservative party has had three leaders and seven chairs. This turmoil has impacted on the party’s efforts to implement our recommendations.”
The Conservative chairman, Greg Hands, MP said: “The party has made significant progress on Prof Singh’s recommendations with 25 complete and just six ongoing. There is however still work to be done and this is a process of continual improvement.”
Updated
The full text of the Michael Gove speech doesn’t seem to be available yet on the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities’ website. But it has published a long summary of all the announcments it contained.
In his pooled interview with broadcasters Rishi Sunak also played down the concerns expressed by the Tory MP Anthony Browne about the government’s plans for more housing in Cambridge. (See 9.47am.) Asked about Browne’s comments, Sunak said:
No one is doing mass housebuilding in Cambridge. This is about adding a new urban quarter to Cambridge, which is something that local communities have spoken about and, of course, that will be done in dialogue with local communities.
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Sunak says he remains committed to net zero agenda, but it must be pursued 'in proportionate and pragmatic way'
Rishi Sunak has said that government climate policies must be implemented “in a proportionate and pragmatic way”.
He made the comment in a pooled interview with broadcasters this morning in which he stressed his overall commitment to the government’s net zero agenda, while hinting that he understood why some Tories want it to be scaled back.
The unexpected Conservative party victory in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip byelection, which followed the Tories turning the contest in effect into a referendum on the extension of the ultra-low emissions charge (Ulez) into outer London, has led to some Tories arguing that green measures that drive up costs for people should be delayed or abandoned.
Ulez (an air quality measure, rather than a carbon emissions measure) will lead to the owners of the most polluting cars in outer London having to pay an extra £12.50 a day to drive.
In his interview this morning, Sunak was asked whether he was still committed to introducing the ban on selling new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. He replied:
Of course net zero is important to me. So, yes, we’re going to keep making progress towards our net zero ambitions and we’re also going to strengthen our energy security.
I think the events over the last year or two have demonstrated the importance of investing more in home grown energy, whether that’s more nuclear or offshore wind. I think that’s what people want to see and that’s what I’m going to deliver.
But when he was asked if he would stand up to the Tory MPs opposed to net zero policies, Sunak replied:
Actually I’m standing up for the British people because I’m also cognisant that we’re living through a time at the moment where inflation is high. That’s having an impact on household and families’ bills. I don’t want to add that, I want to make it easier.
So, yes, we’re going to make progress towards net zero but we’re going to do that in a proportionate and pragmatic a way that doesn’t unnecessarily give people more hassle and more costs in their lives – that’s not what I’m interested in and prepared to do.
In an interview on the Today programme this morning Andrew Mitchell, the development minister, said the government commitment to banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 was still in place.
Asked if that would continue to be the case, Mitchell initially said he could not “prophesise for the future” before he eventually said it would “remain in place”.
Mitchell is not responsible for policy in this area and his comments implied that he thought a future No 10 U-turn on this was not wholly impossible.
Updated
Q: Do you support rent controls?
No, said Gove. He said wherever they had been tried, they led to a constriction of the supply of rented accommodation.
Updated
Q: You want city centres to be buzzing that. But do you accept they can only be buzzing if they have a vibrant nightlife?
Gove joked that he was an enthusiastic supporter of nightclubs. And he said he sympathised with the point being made by the questioner.
Updated
Q: [From the Eastern Powerhouse] Are you looking at the whole of the east of England, and not just Cambridge, in terms of making the east a silicon powerhouse.
Gove said Cambridge was an exceptional place. But he said there were opportunities for other parts of the region too.
Gove said there were plans to tighten energy efficiency standards for the private rental sector. There is a timetable for doing this. Gove said he thought this timetable should be relaxed. Further details would be published shortly, he said.
Updated
Q: [From the National Residential Landlords Association] Do you believe that a private rental sector is needed?
Yes, said Gove. He said a private rental sector was vital to the housing market.
Q: Many people think GP services and schools are oversubscribed. Won’t your plans make this worse?
Gove said his housing plans incorporated the need for infrastructure like this.
Updated
Gove said the government’s decision to drop mandatory housebuilding targets for councils did not mean the government was not still committed to building 300,000 new homes a year. He claimed that had been misunderstood.
Q: Are you committed to abolishing leasehold?
Gove said the government wanted to ensure that leaseholders would, in effect, own their properties.
Freehold would still exist in legal terms. But, in practical terms, “leasehold will effectively be ended”, he said.
Q: Won’t these plans only happen if you are willing to ignore local opposition?
Gove said he believed in taking people with him. And he said he thought his plans would command support.
In the past, people opposed housebuilding because the homes were not beautiful, because there was not enough infrastructure, because of concern for the environment, or because they thought the government was building homes, not neighbourhoods.
Gove said he thought his plans addressed all these concerns.
Gove said the government planned to bring forward the renters reform bill shortly.
Q: How will you get your plans for Cambridge through if an MP like Anthony Browne says they are “nonsense”.
Gove said Cambridge could not be held back. He said he looked forward to discussing them with the Cambridge MPs.
Gove said he did not accept that Labour had an extensive plan for housebuilding.
He said Labour has just committed to building on the green belt. In the past that has led to the erosion of environmenal assets, he said.
He said he was proposing housbuilding on a “Heseltinian” scale.
Q: Why should anyone believe you will build 300,000 homes a year when the government has not been doing that?
Gove said he was someone who, when he made a promise, delivered on it.
He said the government had already achieved the highest level of housebuilding for decades.
Q: When will you meet the 300,000 homes a year target?
“As soon as we possibly can”, said Gove.
Q: Are you committed to building 300,000 homes a year?
Gove said he “completely stands by” the target of building 300,000 homes a year by the middel of the decade.
Q: What is your response to the comments from Anthony Browne?
Gove said he was sure Tory MPs would realise the plans were in the national interest once they have studied them.
Michael Gove took questions at the end of his speech.
Q: Are you focusing on building in cities because fewer Tory voters live there, and because your MPs are opposed to building in the countryside?
Gove said many Tory voters live in cities, as the Uxbridge byelection result showed.
But he said “regenerating cities makes sense economically”. He was promoting these plans because they would be good for the economy, he said.
In his speech Michael Gove said he was appointing Peter Freeman, chair of Homes England, to lead a “Cambridge delivery group” to explore how housing in the city can be expanded.
He said Cambridge’s prospects as a leading global research centre were being held back by the shortage of laboratory space. And he said the shortage of housing was making it harder for firms to recruit staff.
He said the delivery group would come up with a vision for Cambridge’s future.
Talking about what this might involve, Gove said:
Imagine a major new quarter for the city, built in a way that is in keeping with the beauty of the historic centre, shaped by the principles of high quality design, urban beauty and human scale – streetscapes emulating the scale and quality of neighbourhoods, such as Clifton in Bristol or Marylebone in London, with a high proportion of affordable homes, and other properties set aside for key workers and young academics. Then connect that new quarter to the rest of the city with a sustainable transport network that sees current congestion becoming a thing of the past.
Peter Apps, deputy editor of Inside Housing, says that the government is on course to create 1m new homes over the course of this parliament, but that it is not meeting its pledge to build 300,000 a year.
Govt talking up its fulfilment of manifesto pledge to build 1m homes today. The actual manifesto pledge was 'at least a million' over the next Parliament, and a 'target of 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s'. They will get the former. They are miles from the latter pic.twitter.com/oORqX2kmZb
— Peter Apps (@PeteApps) July 24, 2023
Those who are good at maths will know that a million over the course of a five year Parliament is an average of 200,000 a year. And 300,000 a year is a 100,000 higher than that. We're hovering around the 200,000 figure but showing no upwards trajectory: pic.twitter.com/kUnFLjOxRa
— Peter Apps (@PeteApps) July 24, 2023
Of course, it's up for debate whether or not '300,000 homes a year' is in itself a good target, or whether we should also be asking other questions about affordability, homelessness, placemaking and quality. But it's the target the govt has chosen, and it will miss it.
— Peter Apps (@PeteApps) July 24, 2023
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Government plan for urban quarter in Cambridge will be 'dead on arrival' unless water shortage addressed, says Tory MP
The Conservative MP Anthony Browne, who represents South Cambridgeshire, has posted a thread on Twitter explaining why he is opposed to more housebuilding in Cambridge. It starts here.
Cambridge already has about the highest housebuilding in the country, and under the local plans that is set to double with 50,000 new homes by 2050, effectively doubling the size of Cambridge. But there is one major problem: we have run out of water.
— Anthony Browne MP (@AnthonyBrowneMP) July 24, 2023
Brown says there is not enough water available. Unless the government can address the water shortage, he says, the proposal for a new urban quarter in Cambridge will be “dead on arrival”, he says.
Cambridge already has about the highest housebuilding in the country, and under the local plans that is set to double with 50,000 new homes by 2050, effectively doubling the size of Cambridge. But there is one major problem: we have run out of water.
For the first time ever, the Environment Agency is systematically blocking all major new development around Cambridge because there is no water for them. We are the driest part of the country with the highest population growth.
I have campaigned for a new reservoir, and there are now plans for two: one in the Fens and one in Lincolnshire. But they will take nearly 20 years to build. I have written to the water companies to speed up construction but they say they can’t.
Our rivers, streams and ponds already run dry. The wetland reserve at Fowlmere where I grew up now only has water in summer because the Environment Agency pumps it there.
There is not enough water for existing housing; there is not enough for the major expansion of housing already planned; and there is not enough for any govt plans for a new quarter. As I say, unless the Govt can say where the water will come from, it’s plans are dead on arrival
Tory MP vows to fight 'nonsense' plan for more housebuilding in Cambridge as Gove includes it in his new homes initiative
In the news release issued overnight ahead of Gove’s speech, the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities said the government was planning “a new urban quarter in Cambridge which will unlock the city’s full potential as a source of innovation and talent”.
But this morning Anthony Browne, the Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire, has condemned the proposals as “nonsense” and vowed to do everything he can to stop them.
I will do everything I can to stop the government’s nonsense plans to impose mass housebuilding on Cambridge, where all major developments are now blocked by the Environment Agency because we have quite literally run out of water. Our streams, rivers and ponds already run dry.
I will do everything I can to stop the Government’s nonsense plans to impose mass housebuilding on Cambridge, where all major developments are now blocked by the Environment Agency because we have quite literally run out of water. Our streams, rivers and ponds already run dry.
— Anthony Browne MP (@AnthonyBrowneMP) July 24, 2023
The Browne tweet supports the claim made by Keir Starmer, when he announced Labour’s housing plan, that the Conservatives cannot be the party of mass housebuilding because their MPs routinely block these initiatives on behalf of their “nimby” constituents. But the Tories point out that many Labour frontbenchers have also opposed building projects in their constituencies.
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Gove delivers speech on housebuilding
Michael Gove is deliving his speech on housebuilding.
He starts by joking that it is a pleasure to be “Guardian-adjacent”. He is speaking at King’s Cross, near the Guardian’s HQ.
There is a live feed at the top of the blog.
Gove's plan for new homes has 'nowhere near scale of ambition we need', says National Housing Federation
Kate Henderson, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, told the Today programme this morning that she was not impressed by what the government has briefed overnight about its plans to boost urban housebuilding. (See 9.12am.) Here are the main points from her interview.
Henderson said a “much bigger” housebuilding plan was needed. She said that, although there were some positive features in the announcement, more ambition was needed. She said:
From what we’ve heard this morning, there’s some ambition there to develop in cities, which is absolutely needed. And Michael Gove is very ambitious about housing and social housing in particular.
But from what I’ve seen today so far … this is relatively piecemeal. We have such a severe shortage of housing in this country, 4.2 million people are currently in need of a social home and 2 million children are living in overcrowding. So there’s some positive signs today but this is nowhere near the scale of ambition that we need to meet housing need in this country ….
We need 90,000 socially rented homes each year, and last year, we built around 6,500. So against those key metrics, we need to have a much more ambitious plan …
We need something much bigger … I mean, wouldn’t it be great to have a long term plan that looked at ending children, families being stuck in temporary accommodation? Or ending children, families being stuck in overcrowding?
She said that building new homes in urban areas was not enough, and that houses needed to be built in rural areas too. She said:
I’m afraid we can’t meet our housing need just by building in towns and cities. We will need to think about building in rural areas too.
She called for the publication of the update to the national planning policy framework, which she said would make planning easier.
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Sunak implies Labour committed to ‘concreting over countryside’ as he announces plan to boost urban housebuilding
Good morning. The Commons is in recess, but the government is not on holiday and this morning it is making a housing announcement that seems mostly intended as a swipe at Labour.
The overnight press release is headlined: “We will fulfil promise to build 1m new homes, says the prime minister.” Normally a government saying it will do what it promised – the 2019 manifesto said the Tories would “build at least a million more homes, of all tenures, over the next parliament, in the areas that really need them” – does not count as news, even in August. But given that last year, Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, suggested the government was no longer committed to the target, also in the manifesto, of building 300,000 new homes a year, perhaps this is worth noting.
But the meat of the briefing is in a quote from Rishi Sunak included in the news release. He said:
Today I can confirm that we will meet our manifesto commitment to build 1m homes over this parliament. That’s a beautiful new home for a million individual families in every corner of our country.
We need to keep going because we want more people to realise the dream of owning their own home.
We won’t do that by concreting over the countryside – our plan is to build the right homes where there is the most need and where there is local support, in the heart of Britain’s great cities.
“Concreting over the countryside” is a reference to Labour’s housing policy, which was unveiled by Keir Starmer earlier this year and which would involve some green belt development. Gove made the same argument in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph published yesterday, claiming Labour was the party of “suburban sprawl” that wants to “devour the green belt”.
To support its claim that it will be able to build 1m homes over the course of this parliament, the government is announcing moves to clear planning backlogs, as well confirming proposals, which have been floated before, to relax some of the rules holding back urban development. This is how it describes them.
The government will also take steps to unblock the bottlenecks in the planning system that are choking and slowing down development, and stopping growth and investment by:
- Immediately launching a £24m planning skills delivery fund to clear backlogs and get the right skills in place.
- Setting up a new “super-squad” team of leading planners and other experts charged with working across the planning system to unblock major housing developments. The team will first be deployed in Cambridge to turbocharge our plans in the city.
Developers will also be asked to contribute more through fees, to help support a higher quality more efficient planning service.
New flexibilities to convert shops, takeaways and betting shops into homes will help to rejuvenate the high street. Meanwhile, red tape will be cut to enable barn conversions and the repurposing agricultural buildings and disused warehouses.
New freedoms to extend homes, convert lofts and renovate new buildings will help to convert existing properties into new accommodation. A review into the extension of permitted development rights will make it easier for homeowners to build upwards and outwards – with new extensions and loft conversions - whilst ensuring neighbours’ interests are protected.
This morning Kate Henderson, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, told the Today programme these plans contained “nowhere near the scale of ambition that we need to meet housing need in this country”. I will post more from her interview shortly.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning:
9.30am: Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, gives a speech on housing.
Morning: Rishi Sunak is on a visit in the West Midlands.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Charlotte Owen, the youngest person to be made a life peer, and Ben Houchen, the Tees Valley mayor, are introduced as new peers in the House of Lords.
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