Responding to new housing supply figures published today showing a 52 per cent decrease in house-building work starting and a 62 per cent decrease in homes completed in April to June 2020 compared with the same period last year, Cllr David Renard, Local Government Association housing spokesperson, said:
“The slowdown in house-building caused by COVID-19 reinforces the urgent need for the Government to make housing a central part of the national recovery. This means using the Spending Review to give councils the powers to get building desperately-needed new council homes again at a scale not seen since the 1970s, when councils built 40 per cent of new housing.
“Giving councils the tools to deliver a programme of 100,000 social homes a year would not only meet a third of the Government’s annual housing target, but reduce homelessness, get rough sleepers off the streets and support people’s wellbeing. This includes reforming Right to Buy and allowing councils to keep receipts in full and set discounts locally.
“Councils are committed to seeing desperately-needed new homes get built across the country. New housing should also not be determined by algorithms and formulas, which can never be a substitute for local knowledge and decision-making by councils and communities who know their areas best.”