6 Cross-departmental working to promote
housing development
26. The Government has made it a priority to increase
the amount of housing built in the South East and to tackle low
housing demand mainly in the Midlands and the North which it set
out in its strategy document 'Sustainable Communities: Building
for the future'.[26]
According to the Annual Report 2003, the strategy is part
of the ODPM's strategy for meeting its PSA targets. It has set
a timetable to deliver on these commitments and acknowledged the
importance of several Departments contributing to achieving these
objectives.
27. The Committee's inquiry on Sustainable Communities,
Housing in the South East, pointed out that the Government had
not considered how the physical and social infrastructure including
roads, education, health and water required by the additional
1.1 million homes proposed in the South East would be provided
over the next 20 years. Our report urged that commitments should
be secured from the relevant Government departments to make funding
allocations on a long term basis for the necessary infrastructure
before the new housing targets are agreed. The Committee's inquiry
into the Annual Report returned to this issue. The Ministers promised
progress in setting the new house-building targets. Since the
inquiry, there has been progress in identifying the house-building
potential, but the planning of the infrastructure and the guarantee
of funding from several departments has not been progressed. The
new housebuilding targets in the South East cannot be progressed
without the funding commitments from all the relevant Government
departments.
- The ODPM has identified areas of low housing
demand and allocated £500m over the next three years for
Pathfinder Initiatives in the nine areas where the problem is
worst. It has acknowledged that the causes of low demand are multi-faceted
and require wide-ranging strategies and contributions from several
Government Departments including Transport, Trade & Industry,
Work & Pensions and Health. However, Ministers could not demonstrate
how the needs of the local economies and the physical isolation
of many of the areas suffering low housing demand were being tackled.
ODPM funds are likely to
be used to make up the shortfall in allocations by other departments.
Other departments should be required to give similar funding priority
to areas suffering from low demand.
26 Sustainable Communities: Building for the Future
ODPM February 2003 Back
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