Demand for housing might be surging owing to George Osborne’s Help to Buy but supply remains pitifully constrained. The Local Government Association reveals today that 381,390 homes have been given planning permission but have yet to be built. Rather than the planning system (as many on the right claim), it is a lack of finance that is blame.
Tory councillor Mike Jones, the chairman of the LGA’s environment and housing board, has responded by calling for the government to lift the “artificial cap” placed on councils’ borrowing and allow them to build more affordable homes. He said:
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