News / Politics
Force landowners to build housing, says mayor
City mayor George Ferguson has held talks with central government about handing Bristol new powers to force landowners to develop much-needed housing.
The state of the housing crisis in Bristol was laid bare in a report to his cabinet meeting which showed developers were “land-banking” – sitting on land with development potential while its value increases.
“I have had discussions with ministers about us taking on, as part of our devolution deal, some by-laws that would enable us to make quite sure that if people don’t use it, they lose it,” the mayor said at a meeting of his cabinet on Tuesday.
Ferguson revealed his demands during a debate about the Bristol Housing Strategy 2016-20 report which was approved. The strategy commits the council to a blueprint for increasing the number of homes.
The report, triggered by the mayor’s Housing Commission, showed there is planning permission for 6,2084 new homes in Bristol, but construction work has not started.
“They have not been built largely because of the way the planning system doesn’t insist that people build,” the mayor said in response to a question from Labour councillor Ron Stone.
“I think the problem is there is no incentive for some of these developers to build while there’s a lot of incentives for them to sit on their planning permission and potentially benefit financially down the line,” he added.
There are currently 2,039 homes under construction, however, the report notes. The report also shows there are 1,940 private sector dwelling in Bristol which are deemed “long-term vacant”.
There are 194,653 properties in Bristol which has a population of 442,500 and is due to grow nine per cent by 2022, the report shows.
About 30,000 new homes are due to be delivered by 2026. But the report admits: “There will almost certainly continue to be a shortage of housing, particularly of affordable housing for low income households.”
The report also points out that Bristol is an increasingly divided city. “Despite the prosperity within the city, there are substantial problems of deprivation in parts of Bristol. The neighbourhoods that do not share the city’s prosperity often have insufficient good housing, transport and access to employment opportunities,” it says.
Ferguson threw his weight behind the council’s new plans, saying: “This is a real crisis and it is acutely felt in Bristol partly because we are a successful city and that’s why now is the time to produce a new strategy.”
Read about a very Bristol response to the housing crisis here.
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