Political Bulletin

Week commencing 19th July 2010

Development, Planning and Property News

• Cameron announces four pilot regions for planning reform
  
  Liverpool, Windsor and Maidenhead, Sutton, and Eden Valley have been chosen as pilot regions for the coalition government’s planning reforms.
  
  They will also pilot other changes that local communities would be expected to take on under the "big society" agenda including developing transport services, running of local assets including post offices, libraries and pubs, generating their own energy and delivering broadband to local communities.
  
  David Cameron said, "This process is all about learning. It’s about pushing power down and seeing what happens."
  

House Building falls to 1923 levels

So many building projects have been abandoned since the coalition Government came to power that the number of new houses built next year could fall below 100,000 for the first time since 1923.

Almost 85,000 homes that were at the planning stage are not going to be built because of the abolition of Labour's regional housing targets, according to a report commissioned by the National Housing Federation. There are 4.5million in England alone on council waiting lists.

Department for Communities and Local Government

• Minister Greg Clark grandstands in Parliament
  
  Greg Clark became demonstrative during CLG questions in Parliament, dumping 3,000 pages of documents relating to the now dead South East Regional Plan on the dispatch box. "It weighs two stone" he told the House, and apparently without irony, "the document we've replaced it with is six pages and weighs an ounce."

London Mayor and Assembly

• Boris seeks to reduce social rented
  
  Boris Johnson is keeking to reduce the socially rented copmponent of Affordable provision from 70% to 60%, with the rest being shared ownership.

Labour

• Raynsford appointed Olympics homes company chairman
  
  Labour MP and former minister Nick Raynsford has been appointed chairman of Triathlon Homes, the company established to own and manage the affordable housing at in the Athletes' Village in Stratford, east London, following the 2012 Olympics.