"councils do have a raft of seldom used tools which can limit all this.And they can attach a lot more strings to the proviso of appllcations."Michael - I welcome you suggestions on these, and assume you mean any that are valid and legal now in 2013. However, my experience is that our powers are getting more limited. Council Planning Committees have to implement regional and national planning policies, and whilst Hounslow would dearly love to have the funding for, and be able to approve, 10,00 new (truly) affordable homes - sadly neither the Government nor Boris make the funds or powers available to us. And as you know, a planning refusal by our Planning Committee runs the risk of the applicant getting permission on appeal, and then we lose our say on the conditions imposed.We will achieve our target of 2500 new affordable hones during the current administration (2012-2014) of which over 300 are Council-owned homes, and the rest owned or managed by Housing Associations. However, there are over 10.000 households in this borough in housing need right now, and this number is growing. Most cannot afford to buy, even into the shared ownership option that forms part of the affordable housing numbers.Of course one way to address the issue would be for the Government to release funding to build new social rented housing, at rents level with Council rents, for those on low-incomes and in housing need. And in time there would be a saving to the tax-payer on the massive cost of housing benefit, currently being paid to private landlords, on behalf of households earning low pay, or on full disability or pensions benefit, and unable to get Council housing and whose income is little more than the rent.
Cllr Ruth Cadbury ● 4385d