The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) is set to launch an informative report 'Opening up the Debate: Exploring housing land supply myths' which tackles issues of affordability and supply head on. New figures in the report show that house builders have banks of land with planning permission close to 14,000 acres, enough for 225,000 new homes. The report goes on to provide evidence on the relationship between land supply and house prices.
Kelvin MacDonald, RTPI Director of Policy and Research and joint author of the report said: "House builders and others need to stop blaming the planning system as the sole factor in restricting land supply. If we are to tackle the affordable housing crisis we need to move away from overly-simplistic views of demand and supply and look as well at the other factors that contribute to the crisis. This report provides solid evidence to kick off a much needed intelligent debate."
Latest Government figures show over the past 12 months starts have declined by six per cent to 173,400 while completions have increased by just three per cent to 167,700. Updated Government predictions show 223,000 new households will be formed per year between 2004-2026.
