Gavin Barwell Housing Minister

Gavin Barwell on housing: 'There is absolutely no room for complacency'



Gavin Barwell, minister of state for housing and planning, has admitted that the country is still not building as many homes as the government would like as he challenged developers to speed up housebuilding.


Speaking at the Planning for Housing conference on 29th September, the minister provided attendees with an update on how the government was attempting to tackle the housing crisis.

Mr Barwell was appointed minister of state for housing and planning following Theresa May’s appointment as prime minister when she stressed the importance of tackling the housing deficit.

However, Mr Barwell stated: “The scale of this challenge is huge, we haven’t built enough homes in this country for a very long time.

“As a London MP, I see the consequences of that every week in my constituency surgeries.”

Mr Barwell pointed out that when the coalition government came to power in 2010, it inherited one of the lowest peace time rates of housing development and a flawed planning system. 

“In the last six years we’ve made very significant progress.

“Planning reforms have led the way and from the outset we’ve tried to cut red tape and devolved planning powers to the lowest council level to continue that. 

“Thousands of pages of planning policy have been reduced to just 50 pages and local and neighbourhood planning is at the heart of the national planning policy.”

Mr Barwell revealed that the number of new homes had doubled since 2010 and 87% of planning authorities had now published a local plan. 

“Planning permissions are being converted into more homes, certainly not as many as we would like, but we are making progress. 

“However, there is absolutely no room for complacency.”

Looking towards the future, Mr Barwell said the government was looking to release more land and challenge developers to speed up housebuilding.

“There is no silver bullet which is going to solve this problem and I distrust anyone who walks through my door telling me there is a silver bullet.

“It’s the government’s responsibility and my own personal responsibility as housing minister to meet this challenge.

“We need to put pressure on developers to encourage house development and I think if we make changes to the planning system, it is right that we say to them that they need to step up their games and remove those obstacles.

“The challenge we face is formidable and I am optimistic about the future of planning and housing and the performance of the system is improving.” 

 



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