UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced a plan to make it easier for Britons to convert houses into flats, as part of a package of pledges aimed at tackling at the nation’s housing shortage.
Hunt said the government will consult on a new rule to allow any house to be converted into two flats, provided the exterior remains unaffected. A much-rumored stamp duty cut — which would have spared more Britons from a homebuying tax burden — was not included in the chancellor’s Autumn Statement.
Hunt’s pledges, delivered at the House of Commons on Wednesday, included plans to introduce a new premium planning service across England with guaranteed accelerated decision deadlines for major applications in exchange for higher fees. This would lead to quicker decision-making, according to a government document published alongside the speech.
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UK households are facing a stream of pressures — triggered by high rates, a cost-of-living squeeze and worsened by a housing shortage — which are pricing many out of homeownership. Meanwhile, the Conservative Party is bidding to claw back public support on housing, after Labour leader Keir Starmer made a series of building pledges at his party’s annual conference last month.
The chancellor said the government would invest £110 million ($137 million) over this year and 2024 to deliver nutrient mitigation schemes — an issue that effectively bans housebuilding in areas where it risks polluting rivers and waterways — a move he claims will “unlock 40,000 homes.”.
Hunt also vowed to invest £32 million across housing and planning. That includes funding to tackle planning backlogs and to develop new housing in Cambridge, London and Leeds.
The government will also increase the local housing allowance — a rate used to calculate benefits for tenants letting from private landlords — to cover the lowest 30% of rents from April, a move Hunt says will benefit 1.6 million households.
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Still, the Tories’ quest to improve Britain’s planning system has not gone far enough, according to some industry experts.
“Whilst the announcement shows that the government is alive to the chronic delay and under-resourcing issues within the planning system, it does not address the capacity constraints within local authorities,” said Kathryn Hampton, a lawyer at Ashurst. “The system needs more planners with the skills to deal with the onslaught of other planning changes heading our way.”
