Responding to the report, Cllr Martin Tett, Local Government Association’s Housing spokesman, said:
“Planning is not a barrier to housebuilding. Council planning departments are doing an incredible job with extremely limited resources, approving 9 out of ten applications, with the majority processed quickly.
“Councils are committed to ensuring homes are built where they are needed, are affordable, of high-quality and supported by adequate infrastructure and services, but it is vital that they have an oversight of local developments.
“We remain clear that the Government’s housing needs formula does not take into account the complexity and unique needs of local housing markets, which vary significantly from place to place, and imposes unfair and undeliverable targets on communities. This risks leading to a housebuilding free-for-all which will bypass the needs of local communities and could damage public trust in the planning system.
“By lifting the housing borrowing cap the Government has accepted our argument that councils must play a leading role in solving our national housing shortage. With hundreds of thousands of homes in England with planning permission but yet to be built, it also needs to give councils powers to make sure developers build out approved homes in a timely fashion, and use the Spending Review to adequately fund planning departments and allow them to set planning fees locally so they can cover the cost of processing applications.”