Housing for a fairer society: The role of councils in ensuring stronger communities

This report considers the barriers to councils building more high-quality, affordable housing, making ten recommendations for government reform.


‘Housing for a fairer society: the role of councils in ensuring stronger communities’ is the fifth in a series of annual reports between the TCPA and APSE (the Association for Public Service Excellence) considering how UK councils perceive and are responding to the housing crisis.

One of the report’s key findings is that half of councils in England think that permitted development could be a potential threat to people’s health and wellbeing, with the most vulnerable people in society being disproportionately more at risk.

It shows that, for the fourth consecutive year, over half of UK councils are reporting ‘severe’ shortages in affordable housing, with those in England and Wales claiming that they are heavily reliant on developer contributions to create homes for low-earning people.

Among the report’s recommendations is the suspension of the Right to Buy in England; the reinstatement of a definition of affordable housing which links affordability to income; and the adoption of ‘community benefit clauses’ in planning policy to ensure that local authorities consistently maximise the wider benefits of the construction and development process.