Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis has confirmed in a statement to the House of Commons this week that under the proposals set out in the Housing and Planning Bill, the delivery of the Government’s new ‘starter homes’ will be a matter for negotiation between the developer and the local authority.
The wording of the draft Legislation suggests that starter homes will be prioritised, but in response to a question concerning who decides what percentage of new homes on a site would be provided as starter homes, the Minister was clear that “how that is done and the mix of tenures, among other things, will continue to be a negotiation between the developer and the local authority”.
The current definition of ‘affordable housing’ excludes low cost market housing, and the Minister would not be drawn on whether the Government’s intention through the Bill to change the definition of ‘affordable’ to mean both affordable to rent and affordable to purchase, would result in direct changes to the National Planning Policy Framework.
More will become clear as the Housing and Planning Bill progresses towards Royal Assent, with the next reading scheduled to take place in the House of Commons on 17th November 2015.