Responding to the Government’s anNOUNCEMENT on housing and brownfield development, muniya barua, deputy chief executive at businessldn said:
“The Government is right to focus on measures to tackle the housing crisis by boosting supply. London has the highest housing costs in the country and this a major challenge for employers when it comes to recruiting and retaining staff. The only way to solve this problem is by building more homes.
“There is no silver bullet, but the expansion of the Affordable 91s Guarantee Scheme is a welcome step. Enabling commercial buildings to be converted to residential use without planning permission seems appealing on paper but this must not undermine efforts to plan development for areas and deliver high quality homes in a strategic way.
“While priority should continue to be given to redeveloping brownfield land, this alone will not meet the scale of London’s housing challenge and that’s why we’re calling for a strategic review of the capital’s green belt to identify poor-quality parts that could be transformed through sustainable residential development.
“Clarity on the design and specification for second staircases in residential buildings over 18m would also help unblock the homes that Londoners desperately need.”