Nick

Nick Raynsford, MP for Greenwich & Woolwich and former Housing Minister, today commented on the publication of the Government’s consultation paper on its New Homes Bonus Scheme.

Nick says: ‘The scheme set out in today’s consultation paper is bureaucratic, complex and its outcomes will be difficult to predict. It will not meet the objectives set by the Government.

‘It fails all the tests the Government itself sets:

·                     Simplicity

Far from being a simple bonus on all new homes with planning consent, as originally promised, it is in fact calculated on net additions to housing stock, which in many cases will only arrive years after the planning permission has been granted. The tenuous link between the bonus and the original planning consent will undermine the supposed incentive.

·                     Transparency

Far from being easy for Councils and communities to understand, the scheme is unbelievably opaque. In regeneration areas there may well be no net addition to stock for many years where existing unsatisfactory homes have to be demolished. Furthermore, whether a Council gains or loses will depend not just on the Council’s own decisions, but on countless decisions by other authorities. This is because any expenditure in excess of £250m will be deducted from formula grants, distributed to all local authorities.

·                     Predictability

As the bonus will only be available when homes have been built and are occupied - which is often 3 years or more beyond the date planning permission has been granted - and because of the possible loss of formula grants - it will not be possible for Councils to predict with any confidence what they will receive.

·                     Flexibility

In Shire areas, the rigid 80:20 split between district and county authorities will pose a serious disincentive to counties to provide necessary infrastructure, such as roads, school places and social services support, made necessary by new developments. The is the opposite of the claimed flexibility.

‘Over the last 6 months, the Government’s inept meddling with the planning system, struck down by the High Court earlier this week as unlawful, has seriously damaged confidence in the housing market. This complex, bureaucratic, so-called Bonus Scheme published today will not repair the damage already done, and is very unlikely to deliver the expansion in housebuilding the Government claims it wants to see’.