Shelter Briefing: Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill - Second Reading

The Government has introduced the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, which represents an opportunity to deliver on the needs of communities across England by reforming the rules around land and planning to build social rent housing.

An affordable and secure home is a fundamental human need, but one in three of us don’t have a safe place to call home. With housing waiting lists sitting at 1.2 million and over 120,000 children living in temporary accommodation, Shelter are campaigning to ensure that the Bill enables the delivery of more social rent homes than the current housing system.

Our housing system is broken. The cost of land makes building social housing unaffordable for the Government and councils alike. Meanwhile, the current planning system prioritises maximum delivery of unaffordable homes that can be sold to the highest bidder, instead of well-planned developments with homes that people can genuinely afford.

To meet the promises made to communities across the country, the Levelling Up Bill must be amended to:

Reform the 1961 Land Compensation Act to remove ‘hope value’ for housing schemes that deliver social rent housing to meet local authority need.

Ensure that the Infrastructure Levy delivers more social rent homes by a) redefining ‘affordable housing’ to mean social rent and b) making social rent housing an onsite requirement of new housing developments.