The Government has said it will update its housing need formula to enable the delivery of new homes and meet its target of building 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s.
This will result in the prioritisation of brownfield sites and urban areas, with the plans encouraging more homes to be built in England’s 20 biggest cities.
The Government also says it intends to revise the ‘80/20 rule’, which guides how much funding is available to local areas to build new homes. It says this will help level up all parts of the country, rather than just concentrating funding in London and the South East.
The Government is due to launch a new £100 million brownfield land-release fund to support brownfield development, estates regeneration, and development on public sector land. The updated formula follows strong lobbying by the LGA and councils, which had warned that previous proposals would have resulted in fewer homes being built in the north.
Cllr David Renard, LGA Housing Spokesperson, said: “We have been clear all along that algorithms and formulas can never be a substitute for local knowledge and decision-making by councils and communities who know their areas best.
“It is right that councils should have access to funding to support their ambitions, as they are in the best position to determine local housing need, instead of this being prescribed centrally.”