Muted reaction from industry to Queen's Speech

Tuesday, 6 November 2007 12:00 AM

The housing measures outlined earlier today in the Queen's Speech have met with a mixed response from the UK housing industry.

Several key bills were presented by the government including the planning reform bill - designed to speed up the approval of major infrastructure projects in the UK - and the housing and regeneration bill - merging English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation into a new Homes and Communities Agency.

Both bills were designed to alleviate the UK's chronic housing shortages.

One of the key tenets of the government's strategy to achieve this is the creation of a new agency to take responsibility for increasing the supply of social housing.

However, there are concerns this body may have insufficient powers to meet the demands of the market from some quarters.

"The new Homes and Communities Agency put in place by the [housing and regeneration] bill runs the risk of being short on capacity and will need a radical upgrade over the Housing Corporation and English Partnerships if it is to fulfill the remit the government now proposes," said Luke Herbert, UK public policy manager, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics).

"The current fixation on housing numbers could overshadow the regeneration focus of the merged body. Communities are more than houses and flats, people must also be able to work, socialise and live their lives within a safe and attractive environment, something the merged organisation would be well placed to do."

There were also concerns over the proposals' environmental credentials.

"The planning reform bill looks like being a developer's charter - a dismantling rather than an evolution of the planning system introduced by the 1945 Labour government," said Ben Stafford, head of campaigns at the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE).

"Ministers must listen to the concerns of the public who responded to their planning reform consultation in the summer.

"They should scrap plans that will reduce the public's say on major development and be damaging to the environment."

However, some proposals were welcome by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

"This Queen's Speech shows - through the inclusion of three major bills - the built environment is a crucial part of the government's current agenda," said RIBA President, Sunand Prasad.

"Naturally we welcome that, but will be monitoring the progress of these bills closely.

"The government needs to show they really can make a difference to society by creating the right conditions for a high-quality built environment and maximising its efforts to tackle the challenges of climate change."

Yet, for others, the creation of a new government agency was not the solution to the country's housing problems.

"What we need to see from government now is action, immediate steps that will make a real difference," said David Bexon, managing director, SmartNewHomes.com.

"The government proposes its new agency will make better use of surplus public sector land and maximise the potential for brownfield developments but words are no longer enough.

"Without immediate action and a surge in new homes, the government seriously runs the risk of a national housing disaster, where a lack of supply results in unachievable house prices which push homeownership out of the reach of all but the extremely wealthy."

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