How will increased housing targets impact the North?
Labour is aiming to deliver 370,000 a year over the course of the parliament. To do so, it has raised local authority housing targets by as much as 1,300%.
Angela Rayner announced yesterday that the standard methodology for calculating housing need would be changing. As a result, local annual housing targets are going up everywhere except for cities; London, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, and Salford would all be required to supply fewer houses under Rayner’s new formula.
Redcar and Cleveland will see the largest increase in the North. Under the current methodology, the authority has to deliver just 45 homes a year. Rayner’s revised methodology will require Redcar and Cleveland to build 642 homes a year, a 1,300% increase.
Burnley has also seen a steep increase in housing need under Rayner’s new algorithm with the annual target rising from 51 to 396 – a 676% increase.
These increases seem large but Place North West has had confirmation from the government that they are correct.
The tables below show how local housing need will change under the new methodology.
Local authorities can’t ensure that any houses are built, unless they directly commission them. The targets effectively relate to zoning land for development. It is then up to private developers or housing associations to take up those allocations. Horses, water, drinking.
By Brian Gowthorpe