Government plans to drop house building targets could result in local planning authorities reducing the scale of housing allocations included in local plans, developers have warned.
The Home Builders Federation (HBF) has written to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) warning them that the Prime Minister’s plans to abolish top-down housing targets could cause the annual number of new homes delivered to drop by 100,000.
They argued that ‘without clear targets in place’ local planning authorities are not going to cut back on the number of houses in their local plans.
The HBF predicts that such a reduction in housing could cost the economy £17bn and reduce the amount invested into affordable housing by £2.8bn.
In response to the HBF’s letter, a Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesperson said: ‘It is vital we build more homes in places people want to live and work. More details will be announced in due course.’
