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Boris Johnson faces fresh warnings that his planning revision risks damaging his commitment to “leveling up” the country, amid growing anxiety from conservatives over the proposals.
Conservative MPs have already raised concerns directly with the prime minister about planning reforms designed to boost the construction of more than 300,000 houses a year. MPs have focused on the model used to assign new housing targets for each area, and conservatives warn that it will lead to the construction of houses in the heart of their county, rather than in metropolitan centers.
However, there are new warnings that other parts of the plan could end up undermining the central electoral promise of the government to “level up” the most disadvantaged areas of the country, where the conservatives found new supporters in the last elections.
Under the proposals, funds for new infrastructure and social housing would be raised from a flat tax at the national level. The tax, delivered to city councils, would be applied to the expected market value of a building development upon completion.
Planning experts warned that the huge disparity in the market value of developments between London, the South East and the rest of the country meant that the system could end up raising most of the funding for areas that already had good local services.
Setting the rate nationally could mean that developers are drawn to more profitable schemes in the Southeast than elsewhere. An initial analysis by some of Britain’s leading housing academics warned that there were “consequences for regional imbalances”.
“Since the values of completed developments are much higher in London and the southern regions of England than elsewhere, [councils] in these areas they will have a greater capacity to benefit and finance their infrastructure needs, including schools, medical surgeries, roads … as well as securing new affordable housing ”, write Professors Tony Crook and John Henneberry of the University of Sheffield and Christine Whitehead from the London School of Economics. “All of these will be more difficult to secure elsewhere.”
Instead, the rate is asked to be set locally. Neil O’Brien, Conservative MP for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston, said this was preferable “because what can be raised varies so much that one size is unlikely to fit all.”
Christopher Pincher, the Housing Minister, writing on the Conservative Home website, has tried to quell MPs’ fears that the model used to allocate housing needs across the country will affect conservative seats. He said the initial calculations were only “the first step.”
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government was contacted for comment, but had not done so at the time of publication.