Government plans for financial rewards to meet housing targets would fail, claim council leaders. Local Government Association chairman, Lord Bruce-Lockhart, said centrally-imposed targets wouldn’t work because it was impossible to micro-manage housing supply from a desk in Whitehall. He said: ‘It is council leaders working on the ground who know how many homes are needed in their area to meet local demand. It is their work with their private sector partners which can make this a reality.’ And, he said, looking at house building in isolation was not a helpful approach. ‘Money for roads, hospitals and other community facilities is urgently needed to go along with new housing programmes,’ he added. His comments follows publication of a consultation document by the Department for Communities and Local Government entitled A planning delivery grant. The Government has earmarked £120m for 2007-08 to use as incentives to reward local authorities for meeting new house build targets. It wants to see the number of houses built each year rise to 200,000. But critics claim this would leave the planning process open to corruption and push environmental concerns out of focus.
