Housing and planning bill briefing vacant high value housing

  • By London Councils

London Councils represents London’s 32 boroughs and the City of London. We make the case to government, the Mayor and others to get the best deal for Londoners and to ensure that our member authorities have the resources, freedoms and powers to do the best possible job for  their residents and local businesses. See below for an overview, followed by our opinions of specific amendments and finally, our policy position on these provisions.

Overview

London councils are supportive of proactively managing their assets, and many boroughs are already doing this through active regeneration programmes. However this policy requires councils to make a regular payment to the Government based on their high value properties, meaning that in practice many sales receipts will go to the Government rather than being retained to invest in new homes in London. There is therefore real concern that this policy could have unintended consequences on the supply of affordable homes in the capital, affect London’s social mix, and place some estate regeneration plans at risk.

This briefing focuses in three main issues in relation to the legislative requirements around High Value Compulsory Asset Sales, concerning:

  • Replacement viability and the potential long term loss of affordable housing
  • New challenges and costs for boroughs – particularly around temporary accommodation
  • Exemptions and the need for boroughs to have full flexibility over what they sell and the use of receipts
London Councils