Limited local government capacity to support housebuilding is hindering progress on hitting the government’s target of building 300,000 homes annually, the head of Homes England’s new support centre for councils has told LGC.
Deborah Ward
Deborah Ward, director of Homes England’s local government capacity centre, acknowledged that sufficient progress on the goal of 300,000 homes a year by 2024 is “not happening at the moment”.
She said that many councils “have real limitations” around housebuilding – “in terms of land assets that they might have, in terms of what their housing needs might be” and in areas like land value and developer confidence.