Monday, April 16, 2012
IEA Research - Housing Affordability
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A new report from the Institute of Economic Affairs has
suggested that not enough is being done to reduce the
"extraordinarily" high cost of housing in Britain. The
report makes the following recommendations:
- Only a thorough liberalisation of the planning system can
address the affordability crisis;
- The Government must resist vested interests lobbying against
planning reform to help those struggling to afford to buy a
home;
- The Government's National Planning Policy Framework does not
address the fundamental flaw in the current planning framework -
that the current incentives encourage NIMBYism;
- The combination of a restrictive planning system and an
over-centralised tax system should be addressed so that local
residents obtain the advantages of development;
- It must enable rational trade-offs between preserving valuable
pieces of countryside and other considerations: one way to achieve
this is to extend the coalition's 'localism' agenda to local
finances and planning. If local authorities had to cover most of
their expenditure through local taxes, they would have an interest
in enlarging their tax base, and granting planning permission would
be one way of doing so. People would be free to vote for NIMBY
policies, but they would be aware of the cost. Blocking development
would mean foregoing tax cuts or better local public services.