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5-minute briefing: Barwell’s housing plans

The government's housing reform plans are about to be revealed - so what are they going to include?

Nigel Lewis

Housing and Planning minister Gavin Barwell has confirmed that he is to undertake a significant review of the government’s housing plans within the next four weeks that will swing government policy away from its previous mania for home ownership and take a more realistic approach that includes the private rented sector.

Gavin Barwell MP housing plansSpeaking at a RICS reception at the Conservative Party Conference earlier this month he confirmed a White Paper is in the offing and made it clear he wants to ‘stabilise’ the rental market.

On the other hand, he also plans to make more land available to build homes on and turn more planning ‘permissions’ turned into ‘builds’, a dig at the big builders for not keeping up with demand.

Initiatives within the rented sector are likely to be bad news for letting agents as only two levers of control are available to the government. These are to either make tenancies longer and more secure, something the Residential Landlords Association and Shelter have been pushing for, and to back the spread of Build to Rent.

Agents have been resisting longer tenancies and many say their tenant clients like the flexibility of short-term, rolling contracts. But Barwell doesn’t agree and as recently as August he said “we are working with the sector to actively promote [his department’s model tenancy agreement] and to identify any barriers”.

Barwell has also said he wants to encourage the Build to Rent sector, which tends not to use agents to manage properties, revealing last month that the country’s housing ambitions will “never be achieved” without institutional investment in the rental sector.

Lastly, Barwell put a shot across the bows of the big developers. He said the UK was far too reliant on too few builders and that his aim is to free up more land and to increase the number of small to medium builders.

October 24, 2016

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