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Pickles: ‘Regional planning strategies must go’

Friday, 24 June 2011 11:40 AM

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said last night that the abolition of regional strategies and reforms to the planning system were central to boosting housing numbers.

Responding to the Communities and Local Government's Select Committee inquiry into the abolition of regional strategies, the Secretary of State said that top-down targets had failed to deliver more homes.

The Department for Local Communities said the Government's growth review had detailed its commitment to supporting sustainable growth through reforms of the planning system, removal of targets and a strengthened duty to co-operate.

Pickles’s department said it had also instigated a series of incentives to help drive house building, highlighting how building was now up 22 per cent over the past year to March 2011.

Pickles said: "The evidence is clear, top down targets simply haven't worked. Under the previous Government we saw the lowest peacetime house building rates since 1924 and resentment from communities.

"Bringing about more homes and jobs is a top priority for the Government and we are determined to address this problem.

“We must increase the number of homes being built and have introduced a number of incentives to kick-start building. House building has started to rise again and recently we paid the first cash payments under the New Homes Bonus."

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