Government 'failing' over new homes

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Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps said the Government was imposing rigid density targets on developers to ensure it would not miss its "arbitrary" housing target, regardless of whether these were the type of properties people wanted.

At the same time a group of MPs and peers warned that the Government would miss its new build target unless it encouraged private sector investors to build and manage the homes.

Mr Shapps said the proportion of flats being built had soared to nearly half of all homes built last year, up from just one in five in 2001.

He said: "The Government have invented an arbitrary target of three million homes by 2020 and fearful of missing their target have imposed density targets meaning that one and two bed flats are being crammed on top of each other throughout the country, regardless of what local conditions and families actually require.

"Every week I meet families in my constituency and around the country who are begging for help with housing, but they've been let down by a Government who think they know best what kind of housing should be built in their area."

The Conservatives have pledged to scrap the density targets, and instead free up local authorities to decide what type of housing is needed in their area.

Meanwhile the All Party Urban Development Group said councils needed extra support from Whitehall, and particularly from the newly created Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), if they were going to deliver the additional homes that were needed.

It warned that the HCA must avoid the "temptation" to nationalise housing policy, and should instead work with local councils to address the different needs of housing markets, bringing skills and investment from the public and private sector together.

It said large parts of the South East were grappling with the challenges of demand and affordability, while some areas of the north were struggling to regenerate communities, creating both affordable homes and ones that could be sold at market rates.