RICS responded to today’s announcement by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) on long-term plans for housing.
Sam Rees, senior public affairs office at RICS, said:
“RICS welcomes the UK Government’s announcement on boosting the supply of homes, which is essential to creating a vibrant and affordable housing market.
“RICS has repeatedly stressed the importance of setting new homes targets, and the commitment from Michael Gove to building 1 million homes during this government is a step in the right direction. However, this figure is lower than the government’s original 300,000 new build annual target, which it never met.
“Investment in additional planning resources is welcome, as is the greater importance and consideration of community infrastructure, which is critical to sustainable placemaking.
“Plans to cut red tape to encourage extensions and conversions won’t deliver a significant increase in new homes at scale, but it can help to repurpose high streets and bring shops and offices back into use. That said, RICS stresses that any cut in red tape must not come at the detriment of quality, safety, and sustainability, that we have seen with prior planning reforms.”
Gary Strong, global building standards director at RICS, said:
“England has long been an international outlier with regards to fire safety means of escape staircases, and despite the Grenfell Tower fire six years ago, we are still allowing new single-stair residential buildings of any height.
“RICS is pleased the UK Government announcement today shows they have taken heed of what other countries including Scotland have already done, what expert bodies such as the RICS has been saying, and ensure there is resilience against a single point of failure when it comes to fire safety. We urge the Government to now deliver on this announcement and legislate second staircases in new residential buildings over 18m as soon as possible.
“RICS also welcomes the announcement of the opening of the Cladding Safety Scheme, and again urges this be put in place quickly. Six years is too long for any resident to have to wait for Government to act when it comes to fire safety and cost alleviation.”