Briefings and responses

Local government is ready to work with the Government to achieve these objectives. However, the current proposals lack the detail that is needed for full debate and comment. This lack of detail means that there are wide-ranging concerns about how the proposals will work in practice.

A local, plan-led system is vital to ensure that councils and the communities they represent have a say over the way places develop.

Whilst we support an increased focus on design, we are concerned that because ‘beauty’ is subjective, striving for, or allowing ‘beautiful’ development to be fast-tracked may not lead to the quality homes and places communities want and need. Councils need tools that will empower them to create great quality homes and places and stop poor development, rather than supporting those deemed to be ‘beautiful’.

The LGA welcomes the Government’s second stage of proposals for non-domestic and domestic standards that will support achieving the UK’s commitment to bring all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.

Councils are committed to working in partnership to create better places by using public sector assets more efficiently, creating service and financial benefits for partners, as well as releasing land for housing and other development to deliver wider social, environmental and economic outcomes for local communities.

The LGA has direct experience of the failure of the construction product testing regime in two respects: the testing of cladding systems and the testing of fire doors.

The Government is consulting on the policy design for a new tax that is proposed for the UK residential property development sector. The residential property developer tax (RPDT) will be introduced in 2022 and seek to raise at least £2 billion over a decade.

Rather than responding to every question in the consultation, our response focuses primarily on concerns about the potential impact of the tax on affordable housing delivery and where the proposed ‘collection agent’ role should sit.

Councils need a developer contribution system that is transparent, efficient and effective in bringing forward the affordable housing and funding for the strategic and local infrastructure communities need.