May unveils scheme for mass new social housing building

THERESA MAY has announced new measures to encourage the building of new social housing to help thousands of families.

The Prime Minister said the Tories would “support the most ambitious councils” and housing associations to overturn the decline in social housing.

In the past 20 years, a decline in local authority house-building has left England with a dwindling social housing stock as demand has risen.

There are now 300,000 fewer homes for social rent than 20 years ago and around 1.2million families on waiting lists for a social tenancy.

Mrs May said: “Whether you rent or buy, everyone needs the security of a place to call home but too many ordinary working families are stuck on council waiting lists, facing unaffordable rents and struggling to save for that first deposit.”

Under the deals, the Government would give councils and housing associations funding and make available house-building capability from the Homes and Communities Agency.

Councils would be able to assemble land, including derelict buildings or unused pocket sites, more easily under reformed compulsory purchase rules. The deals would require a proportion of the social homes built to be sold after 10 to 15 years, allowing increases in land and housing value to then be reinvested in new social housing.

The tenant would receive the first right to buy on the property.

Ministers hope to encourage smaller developers into the market to build a new wave of prefabricated houses.

They also want to tighten rules on

‘Too many working families are stuck on council waiting lists, facing unaffordable rents and struggling to save’

how long developers can sit on planning permission without building.

The Prime Minister’s plan for housing will be included in the Tory election manifesto, expected to be unveiled on Thursday.

Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, last week said: “Sajid Javid has very ambitious plans to build millions of new homes and that has got to be done, but that doesn’t mean we can’t simultaneously be a party that rewards thrift and enterprise and self-help.”