More housing for Sussex: Government ambition & local deliverability collide
The Government intends to solve the country’s housing crisis by building 1,500,000 new homes during the life of this Parliament: 300,000 annually starting last summer. Everyone needs a decent home, so most of us can relate to the Government’s ambition to tackle what is a real problem. There are however flaws in the Government’s plans to solve the country’s housing crisis.
The real challenge is about the affordability of houses. The most urgent need is to secure homes for first time buyers and less well-off that they can afford to buy or rent. They are vital members of a healthy community. But the Government has not set targets for building affordable housing, leaving the private sector free to focus on delivering mainly larger market housing, and often not in the right place.
Local planning authorities in Sussex face significant challenges to meet the Government’s house building targets. Across Sussex as a whole over the last three years each year we have managed to build fewer than half of the houses that the Government is now demanding of us (7,065 a year compared to 14,705 a year). And it is not for want of trying. Examples from across Sussex illustrate the issues.
The cost to the environment and biodiversity of planning changes needed to meet the Government’s housebuilding ambitions in Sussex could be significant.
Find out more: Sussex housing numbers