We welcome this review of social housing and the Labour party’s commitment to build 100,000 new genuinely affordable homes every year. It is an issue that has been neglected for too long and requires new approaches. Government needs to support the building of more social housing with both new powers and public funding. Planning will play a key role in delivering a new generation of social housing.
Planning is responsible for deciding what is built and where. It is also integral to capturing uplifts in land value for the public where there is new development.
Building more social homes is crucial to addressing the housing crisis. However, it is not enough to build 100,000 new social homes a year – it is also crucial to ensure they are near centres of employment, with good transport links and access to schools, hospitals and everything else people need.
