Under the previous government, each new brownfield housing development had to demonstrate financial benefits that outweighed the cost, making it difficult for regional leaders to back new housing projects in areas where the land values are relatively low.
Tweaking this “cost benefit rule” to look at the overall financial benefit of multiple sites, instead of each site on its own, would allow for more housebuilding opportunities across the whole of West Yorkshire, not just in certain areas of high land value.
The new Government has pledged to “Get Britain Building” by reforming the national planning system and giving greater flexibilities to local areas, with West Yorkshire leaders hoping to build an additional 38,000 new homes on brownfield land, for which planning permission has already been secured.
Cllr Denise Jeffery, Leader of Wakefield Council and Chair of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority Place, Regeneration and Housing Committee, said: “Thousands more families are living in safe, secure, and affordable homes because of the decisions of our West Yorkshire Mayor in partnership with local Councils. We’ve really made the most of the powers and funding devolved to our region so far.
“But now we need to accelerate this work even more. For too long, strict Government rules over where our brownfield housing fund is spent have blocked our plans. This has limited too much of what we’ve been able to achieve to places where land values are already high.
“With the backing of a new Government, and the promise of greater flexibility in how we can make decisions, we can build 38,000 new homes. That is at the heart of delivering a region which everyone can be proud to call home.”
Earlier this year, West Yorkshire’s first ever regional housing strategy was launched by Mayor Tracy Brabin and Cllr Denise Jeffery, with four pillars to guide housebuilding efforts in the region:
- Boosting the supply of homes by bringing forward a pipeline of new housing developments
- Delivering more truly affordable homes, with the right homes in the right places so local people can afford to live in them
- Improving the quality of existing homes, including making them more energy efficient to reduce household energy bills
- Creating vibrant communities, with new housing contributing to safe, well-connected, green, creative and thriving places
As part of the strategy, homeowners in the region are able to access low interest loans through the Home Energy West Yorkshire initiative, to invest in home improvements that lead to savings over the long-term, such as double-glazed windows, cavity wall insulation, solar panels and heat pumps.
Mayor Brabin’s ambition for the initiative is a “one stop shop” providing energy and money saving advice to all homeowners and renters in West Yorkshire, alongside a programme to retrofit all council and social homes in the region, to reduce energy bills and put more money in people’s pockets.
The NHC’s Northern Housing Summit is the largest annual gathering of Northern social housing leaders, with discussions on how to achieve transformative change for and with communities through action on devolution, net zero, regeneration, housing quality and supply.
Tracy Harrison, Chief Executive of the Northern Housing Consortium said: “We were pleased to welcome the Mayor to our conference, and her commitment to addressing the housing crisis was clear. We stand with her on the role that development of brownfield land can play in making sure everyone has a good quality home they can afford.
“We worked with combined authorities in the North, including West Yorkshire, on our Brownfield First report and found there is the potential to unlock 320,000 homes in the North through a ten-year, £4.2bn programme to remediate all of the North’s brownfield land.
“At the conference, we shared new research which showed housing costs are pushing 3.2 million people into poverty in the North, so the sooner West Yorkshire is able to unlock those 38,000 extra homes on brownfield land, the better.”
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