Planning and Housing

Prime Minister speaks out against construction of "tiny homes"

26.06.19: The Prime Minister has called for new design standards to ensure high-quality homes and further rights for tenants. Theresa May will use her address to the Chartered Institute of Housing conference today to highlight “tiny homes with...

How community-led initiatives can help save the housing shortage

19.06.19: Tom Chance, director at the National Community Land Trust Network, argues that community-led initiatives are a productive way of helping to solve the housing shortage. Collaboration, it is said, is the key to building more homes, designing...

Thurrock Council: A council that gets business, does business and means business

11.06.19: Thurrock Council’s chief executive, Lyn Carpenter, discusses an exciting new £1bn regeneration scheme on the River Thames and its importance in setting the template for high quality, community-driven and infrastructure-led growth. ...

Government gives Northern Powerhouse minister new housing and energy remit

10.06.19: The Northern Powerhouse minister Jake Berry has had his powers extended to include housing, business and energy by the government, “strengthening its commitment to the Norther Powerhouse.” The joint ministerial position will see...

Building for the future amidst a growing affordability crisis

03.06.19: Cllr Philip Atkins, housing, infrastructure, and planning spokesman for the County Councils Network (CCN), reveals that county house prices are the most unaffordable in England outside of London. House prices are never far away from the hea...

Public-private partnership creates housing community at Oxford City Council

30.05.19: Cllr Mike Rowley, board member for housing at Oxford City Council, details how his authority is meeting the growing demand for housing in the city. Oxford’s Barton housing development opened the doors to its first social housing tenan...

Introduce ‘smart bins’ and hand out tax cuts to drive up recycling, urges think tank

13.05.19: Local authorities should use a new generation of “smart bins” and council tax cuts to drive up household recycling rates, a think tank’s new report has recommended. Bins fitted with sensors could record household recycling...

Councils to be placed under legal duty to house victims of domestic abuse

13.05.19: Councils are to be given a legal duty to provide “safe houses” for victims of domestic abuse and their children, under new plans announced by the prime minister. Theresa May announced the new policy, backed by government funding...

Medway Council in £35m shopping centre purchase as part of major regeneration programme

30.04.19: Medway Council has acquired a high street shopping centre for £35m as part of a major regeneration programme. The unitary authority has taken over the lease of the Pentagon Shopping centre in Chatham town centre for £34.8m, and...

Guildford approves major local plan for thousands of new homes on green belt land

29.04.19: Thousands of new homes are to be built in Guildford up until 2034 after the local council voted to adopt a major local plan which will see 15 villages taken out of the green belt. Despite thousands of objections, Guildford Borough Council h...

Auditors find ‘significant weaknesses’ in record-breaking investment deal and slam Surrey council’s £1bn ‘property roulette’

29.04.19: Auditors have slammed a district council in Surrey which undertook the most expensive property investment ever made by a local authority after it found “significant weaknesses” in its financial processes. KPMG delivered a damnin...

Thurrock Council approves £1bn town centre regeneration scheme to build nearly 3,000 homes

26.04.19: Thurrock Council has approved plans for a £1bn town centre regeneration which will see nearly 3,000 new homes created and generate around 2,200 new jobs. The proposals to transform mainly brownfield sites in Purfleet “into a new...

Surrey CC reveals plans to scrap 200 council buildings and relocate its HQ to save £10m a year

25.04.19: Surrey County Council has unveiled plans to scrap around 200 of its buildings and move to a new HQ in a bid to save tens of millions of pounds. Guildford and Woking have emerged as the frontrunners to host Surrey’s new “civic he...

Cornwall Council criticised by ombudsman after taking more than 11 years to decide man’s village green application

25.04.19: Cornwall Council has been criticised by the local government ombudsman after failing to determine a man’s village green application more than 11 years after he submitted it. Colin Brown first applied to the council to have a piece of...

Councils face £1bn-a-year funding gap for single homelessness as charities give government ‘wake-up call’

24.04.19: Local authorities in England have more than halved their spending on single homeless people since 2008 spending and are spending £1bn less a year, major research from homeless charities have found. St Mungo’s and Homeless Link s...