Missing the target?
In February the Government launched its Housing White Paper with the promise of a consultation on the way housing targets are calculated. This was welcome news: there is currently no single agreed method of calculating required housing numbers, and the system sees councils struggling to meet unrealistically high targets. But in a speech this week, Communities Secretary Sajid Javid gave the worrying impression that things are about to become much worse. The minister’s stated preference for building more houses in high demand areas could lead to a loss of protected land without addressing genuine housing need.
