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Time to Level-Up: Local Authority Housing and Planning Capacity in the North of England

The NHC has launched new research conducted by academics at the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE) showing Councils in the North of England have been disproportionately impacted by reductions in spending since 2010, leading to significant loss of housing and planning capacity.

Read ‘Time to Level-UP: Local Authority Housing and Planning Capacity in the North of England’.

The NHC has set out a three-point plan which they are urging Government to adopt. The plan calls for:

  • a sustained real-terms increase in local government funding,
  • a national centre of specialist expertise located in the North and open to all,
  • place-based outcome-focused deals that rebuild local capacity.

How will the NHC use the findings?

As well as sharing emerging findings with our members, the NHC will be presenting the findings to key officials and politicians. We have used this study as the evidence base for our key asks on housing and planning capacity as we move towards the Budget and Spending Review.

We have already engaged with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, and Homes England on the study; and will also be sharing the findings with the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Housing in the North; who are particularly interested in changes in local authority capacity to manage the private rented sector, given their recently-launched Inquiry into property standards in the North’s PRS.

Contact for further information

Brian Robson, Executive Director (Policy and Public Affairs)

brian.robson@northern-consortium.org.uk

0191 566 1020