MIPIM UK NEWS: Minister for housing and planning Gavin Barwell says the government wants to depoliticise decision making around the UK’s large infrastructure projects and grow a mixed tenure approach to speed up house building.
Speaking on the opening day of MIPIM UK, the minster said: “The evidence is clear that most people want to own their own home. It is right that a part of policy is focused there.
“But fundamentally, the best thing we can do is get more homes, so we must make sure the ownership objective is not trumping supply.”
Barwell, along with fellow panellists David Partridge, managing partner at Argent and Victoria Hills, chief executive of the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation, acknowledged the importance of infrastructure in building more homes.
“I think everyone would acknowledge it has taken us too long as country to settle some of these issues. Setting the National Infrastructure Commission was to ensure they do not get stuck in the five-year timelines of parliament,” added Barwell.
“You need a cross-government view to unlock benefits,” he said.
Hills said that the new government and mayors meant now is the time to make bold decisions around infrastructure.
“One of the things that unlocks those projects is how you can pay for them, and capturing the value from infrastructure is a big priority… and I know through the London finance commission the mayor is making a strong case for that.”
Though Partridge warned that infrastructure alone would not create the right spaces.
“It is all very well having that transport, but there are loads of places that have that connectivity but are not where people want to live or work, so what is critical is we follow up the opportunity that investment in transport is opening up, and ensure we create new communities in those places being created.”
Barwell also touched on the disconnect between planning permissions and getting schemes built out, saying “people cannot live in planning”.
He said there is too much delay due to pre-commencement planning conditions, the finalisation of S106 details, and agreements with utility companies, adding: “There is also an issue the major builders will build out at a rate that will absorb. The lesson to me is to have a mixture of people building out large sites, a mixture of tenures.”
He also said he is soon to gain new powers that will allow him to intervene to make councils work together in an area.
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