CIPFA’s Director of Local Government, Sean Nolan, responds to the Government’s housing white paper
Sean Nolan, Director of Local Government at CIPFA, said: “The move away from the long held policy of exclusively promoting home ownership is welcome. Diversifying the market has to be key to future availability.
“There are still vital roles for housing associations and councils in providing affordable housing for rent or to buy, but to do this they must be allowed greater freedom and flexibility to build new homes and replace existing stock reduced under right to buy, something that has been denied them in recent years.
“Social housing is a necessary and long-term investment that requires certainty and full control of the assets, so we welcome the opportunity to work with others on driving this forward.
“It is encouraging that the white paper gives credit to the innovative ways local authorities are working to build new homes and also that the government will look at ‘all the options’ with them for increasing supply.
“Similarly encouraging are the shorter term initiatives that are being proposed, specifically around the use of ‘completion notices’ to put pressure on developers to start building within two years. It is also worth highlighting the support for brownfield sites at the planning stage and a push for increasing smaller development sites in an attempt to engage more with builders of all sizes and not just the large national ones.”
ENDS
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Notes to editors
About CIPFA
The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) is one of the leading professional accountancy bodies in the UK and the only one which specialises in the public services. It is responsible for the education and training of professional accountants and for their regulation through the setting and monitoring of professional standards.
Uniquely among the professional accountancy bodies in the UK, CIPFA has responsibility for setting accounting standards for a significant part of the economy, namely local government. CIPFA’s members work (often at the most senior level) in the public service bodies, in the national audit agencies and major accountancy firms. They are respected throughout for their high technical and ethical standards and professional integrity. CIPFA also provides a range of high quality advisory, information and training and consultancy services to public service organisations. As such, CIPFA is the leading independent commentator on managing and accounting for public money.