Backlog on new homes (From Basingstoke Gazette)

1,700 homes waiting to be built in the South

7:00pm Thursday 20th September 2012 in Local

THERE is a backlog of more than 1,700 new homes waiting to be built in the South, new figures reveal.

The homes have all been awarded planning permission, many in areas with acute housing shortages. But no work has started on 1,766, the Local Government Association has said.

In Basingstoke and Deane, 853 homes are under construction but a further 163 are yet to start being built.

The Government has signalled plans to relax planning laws in an attempt to stimulate demand and boost the economy. But the Hampshire branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England has said it is “filled with anxiety” at the prospect, with pressure for new housing sites higher in the South East than anywhere else in the country.

Across the Southampton and Hampshire County Council areas, 6,399 homes have already been awarded planning permission. While work is under way on 4,625 of these, that leaves a backlog of 1,766 homes in the system.

Ministers have proposed a shake-up, called Get Britain Building, that would allow extensions of up to eight metres without planning permission, relax the requirement for developers to provide a proportion of affordable homes, underwrite the construction of new homes, and take away planning powers from local councils.