‘Fixing our broken housing market’: Housing White Paper

Wednesday 8 February 2017

In its Housing White Paper published yesterday, the Government concedes that the UK’s housing market is “broken” and promises a fresh wave of home-building and affordable housing to buy and rent.

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In its Housing White Paper published yesterday, the Government concedes that the UK’s housing market is “broken” and promises a fresh wave of home-building and affordable housing to buy and rent.

Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid MP, told the House of Commons, “Our housing market is broken. We have to build more of the right homes in the right places, and we have to start now,” and cited housing as one of the greatest barriers to progress in Britain.

Legal issues discussed in the White Paper include:

  • Changing the planning process;
  • Banning letting agents’ fees from being charged to tenants;
  • Banning orders and fines against “rogue landlords”;
  • Promoting longer tenancies in private rented sector new-build houses;
  • Increasing house-building;
  • Incentives for home-owners to sell big family homes and plans for more sheltered housing schemes.

There are no plans to fund councils to build more houses and the proposals for longer tenancies in the private rented sector only apply to newly built houses, not to existing private rented tenancies.

Read the full Housing White Paper: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/housing-white-paper

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