The UK Government has revealed its plans to reform the housing market and increase the number of homes across England.

Unveiling the Housing White Paper today, 07 February, Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said current "broken" market can be solved by "building more houses in the places that people want to live".

Under the proposals, local planning authorities will create up to date plans that meets projected household growth in the area, ensuring enough land is released for new homes to be built as well as taking heed of peoples wishes and continuing to protect greenbelt land.

In addition, councils/developers will be expected to use land more efficiently by avoiding building homes at low density and building higher where there is a shortage of land and in locations well served by public transport.

Local authorities will be given more powers to speed up house building and ensure developers build homes on time. Timescales for developers to start building will be shortened from three to two years when planning permission is granted.

Other key measure include;

• £3 billion fund to boost small to medium sized (SME) firms, including support for off-site construction

• Introduce a lifetime ISA to help first-time buyers save for a deposit in April 2017

• Only building on green belt land in 'exceptional circumstances'

• Making best use of homes that are long-term empty

• Measures to tackle unfair and unreasonable abuses of leasehold

Overall, the Government is planning to build one million new homes by 2020.

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Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said: "With prices continuing to sky rocket, if we don’t act now, a whole generation could be left behind. We need to do better, and that means tackling the failures at every point in the system.

"The housing market in this country is broken and the solution means building many more houses in the places that people want to live.

"We are setting out ambitious proposals to help fix the housing market so that more ordinary working people from across the country can have the security of a decent place to live. The only way to halt the decline in affordability and help more people onto the housing ladder is to build more homes."

Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), welcomed proposals to increase planning fees by 20%, which aims to boost house buildings for SMEs.

"Both house builders and local authorities agree that the Government will not be able to build one million homes by 2020 unless council planning departments are properly funded. That’s why SME house builders will give a cautious welcome to the announcement in today’s Housing White Paper that central Government will allow councils to increase planning fees by 20% if they commit to investing the extra funds in planning alone and not in other areas.

"This is something that the FMB has been calling for and in our view, is one of the biggest game changers to come from today’s 100 page Housing White Paper. If this can be shown to deliver real improvements in planning, then it would make a good case for further increases along the lines the White Paper suggests."

However, Paul Goodman, chairman of the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers, said proposals in the white paper are "re-treading old ground".

"Today's white paper should have been a solid assertion that small and midsize construction companies are going to get the support they need to start building in serious numbers," he said.

"Instead, if Sajid Javid's speech to Parliament is anything to go by, it just looks like the government is re-treading old ground.

"The government's commitment to 'innovative' building practices and its re-assertion of the pledges made around the £3bn Home Building Fund is encouraging, but we heard all this last year.

"What our broker members are seeing on the ground is that funders have a real appetite to financially support these developments - so there's clearly a disconnect.

"Education has an important part to play here. High Street lenders can play a large part in funding these developments, but construction SMEs should be aware that there are a range of funding options available to them - beyond just the High Street.

"It is therefore vital that the government emphasises the range of financial options available to SME builders, and that they can continue to access the finance they need to get Britain building."

(LM)