Housing Market Intelligence Conference 2013

Housing Market Intelligence Conference

Wednesday 9th October

The British Museum, London

Ministers make housing pledges at HMI conference

The government will next month launch a Right to Contest scheme, which will allow people to identify government-owned land that they believe could be put to better use, Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the treasury announced today (October 9). Speaking at Housebuilder’s Housing Market Intelligence conference in London, Alexander said that the public sector held 40% of development sites and that “we shouldn’t act as a compulsive hoarder”.

“If the government is holding land that you think we can make better use of, we will sell it on the open market and use the proceeds to pay down the debt,” Alexander explained. He acknowledged the “vocal critics” of the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme who feared a housing bubble, but said that market data contradicted their concerns. He added that the Bank of England would alert the government to any overheating in the market.“Those who think there is a housing bubble should get out of London more,” he commented.

Also speaking at the conference, shadow communities secretary Hilary Benn said that Labour would “broadly speaking” keep the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). “Local councils must take responsibility for their housing need under the NPPF,” he said.