ROOF Blog

Conservative councils are less likely to grant planning permission for new homes than other local authorities, according to research by McGrigors, the commercial law firm.

The gap is not large – 63 per cent of applications were approved by Tory-controlled councils compared with 69 per cent in authorities under Labour, Liberal or no overall control.

But given that the Conservatives control half of all councils with planning permission powers and are likely to make further gains in elections in May, the outlook could well be an even more severe housing shortage in the long-term, the law firm said.

On top of that, Conservative control is most heavily concentrated in the south-east where housing shortages are most acute.

Six of the 10 local planning authorities with the lowest approval rates, all below 45 per cent, were run by the Conservatives. They were Castle Point, Wycombe, Chiltern, Wokingham and Reigate and Banstead in the south east, and the Forest of Dean.

The locations of four new eco-towns were announced yesterday – Rackheath, Norfolk; north west Bicester, Oxfordshire; Whitehall Bordon, east Hampshire; and China Clay near St Austell in Cornwall. Communities and Local Government said the government would provide £60 million in funding to provide infrastructure to support the towns and a further £5 million would be made available for councils to work on proposals for a ‘second wave’ of six more towns. Construction is not expected to start until 2016.

The number of young people not in employment, education and training (neets) is expected to total one million by September research by the Local Government Association has found. Much earlier intervention is needed to identify young people who are at risk of dropping out and councils should be allowed to fund employment or training projects, the LGA says.

The Conservatives have warned that equality legislation could stop government plans to give local people greater priority for council housing. Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps said the measures would be illegal and questioned if funding for the £1.5 billion cost of the programme would be diverted from the Decent Homes initiative, which aims to take every council and social property in the country to a decent standard. The government has denied this.

John Healey is expected to announce details of a consultation to allow councils to keep the proceeds of council house sales and the revenue from rent, after revealing last night that he would ‘dismantle’ the current council housing finance system. Under the current system the money is returned to the Treasury where it is reallocated to local authorities based on housing need.

Since the Labour government came to power in 1997 more than 100,000 properties have moved into a higher council tax band because of home improvements. Critics are arguing that the addition of porches, bedrooms, conservatories, parking spaces and treehouses have cost owners on average an extra £200 a year, including more than 27,000 properties mostly in the South East, being bumped up a band in the past two years. The government has said it would re-evaluate council tax after the next election.

Hundreds of thousands of households have been overcharged in a ‘council tax cover up’ according to the Telegraph. According to leaked minutes, the Treasury has known since at least 2005 that many homes were in the wrong tax bands and that tens of millions of pounds may have been overpaid, but the government kept the details secret to avoid having to pay tax refunds.

Staying in Wales, a woman has been evicted from her private rented accommodation by a council after complaints of antisocial behaviour. Rhonnda Cynon Taf council said the case was the first premises closure order in Wales, and added that the local authority had taken action reluctantly due to ‘extreme circumstances’. Police had been called to the property 20 times since February.

A quarter of Scottish council buildings are in ‘poor or bad’ condition, Audit Scotland has warned. It said many buildings were unsuitable for the services delivered for them, despite more than £130 million spent on maintenance last year. Audit Scotland estimates the cost of tackling the repairs backlog has reached £1.4 billion. It found that only half of councils have strategies for managing and maintaining property, and only a third think further ahead than the next five years about what services they will need.

Ex-servicemen and women who are seriously injured will be given priority for specially adapted social homes, minister Iain Wright has announced. Councils are being instructed to treat seriously injured personnel as a priority when allocating modified housing under new guidelines.