WITH the new Labour government pledging to build 1.5 million new homes before the next election, Herefordshire’s construction firms have set out what needs to be done to boost building in the county.

“The ban on new homes has cost the county more than £500 million already and has prevented affordable housing, listed building restoration and devasted the local economy,” the Herefordshire Construction Industry Lobby Group said.

“Given the tiny contribution of new housing to the pollution problem in local rivers, the government must also commit to preventing any such bans in future.”

Secondly, the bonuses the government pays local authorities for new housing should be used to incentivise building small rural housing schemes quickly, “rather than prioritising a few large speculative estates”, the group said.

Thirdly, the government must work with builders and landowners to deliver more “public goods”, as it is now doing with farmers.

“New housing schemes can provide ecological, biodiversity and carbon enhancement – so much more can be achieved if it is fairly incentivised,” the group pointed out.

Fourth, it wants government funding for new social housing to go not only to registered providers and housing associations “who have largely failed to deliver the required homes”, but also to support alms houses and shared homes, for self- and custom-built houses, and for “sympathetic tourism accommodation, that doesn’t compromise the need for full-time homes”.

Fifthly, neighbourhood development plans, the cornerstone of local planning, must be made to allocate land for affordable housing and small housing schemes, rather than serving as “a way to prevent new homes”, the group added.

Sixth, councils should be fined for failing to meet housing targets or determine planning applications on time, with fines being used to support local housing and community projects. Developers should also be fined for “sitting on” approved schemes rather than building them.

Lastly, the county’s builders want support for training and employing local people, especially the young, “to reinvigorate Herefordshire in terms of jobs, homes, innovation, opportunity and skills”.

Herefordshire’s population is growing much more slowly than the rest of the country, and such growth is mostly among the over-65s.