Government announces policies on affordable homes, infrastructure commission and right to buy

In his speech to the annual Conservative Party conference last week, prime minister David Cameron said people wanted to own their own homes but that under existing rules the definition of affordable homes, which councils require to be delivered by housing developers under agreements accompanying planning permissions, "basically meant homes that were only available for rent". Cameron said the government would change housing policy so that "those affordable homes can be available to buy".

It is understood that the policy change will be twinned with the government's starter homes initiative, under which 200,000 first-time buyers under the age of 40 are to be able to buy a home at a 20% discount.

Cameron also announced in his speech that communities secretary Greg Clark had reached an agreement with housing associations and the National Housing Federation that would give housing association tenants the right to buy their homes at a discount from next year. A statement from the National Housing Federation said the terms of the agreement meant "homes sold will be replaced, delivering an overall increase in housing supply".

Reports from fringe sessions at the conference said housing minister Brandon Lewis had expressed a desire to reinstate exemptions for small and medium-sized house builders from affordable housing and infrastructure payments. An exemption introduced last November was deleted from planning guidance in the summer after it was found to be unlawful in the High Court.

Planning expert Ben Mansell of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com said: "It is encouraging to see that the government is announcing further initiatives to enable first time buyers to make the first step on to the property ladder. The chronic shortage of housing in the UK has a huge impact upon first time buyers, with asking prices far out of the reach of many people. Bringing discount starter homes under the definition of affordable housing should ease this issue."

"However, how much of an impact this policy will have remains to be seen, with many developers eager to minimise the affordable housing element within development proposals," said Mansell. "In addition, no further detail has emerged of the effect this policy may have on people who do not have the resource to buy affordable housing."

Chancellor George Osborne used his conference speech to announce the establishment of a National Infrastructure Commission to assess the UK's long-term infrastructure needs. Osborne said the Commission would look ahead at the country's requirements for the next 30 years and would provide advice to the government at the start of each parliament on what it was expected to do in the next five years.

The chancellor said the Commission's remit would include consideration of how investment in infrastructure could support housing development. Osborne said Labour Party peer Lord Adonis had been appointed as chairman of the Commission, which would initially focus on connections between England's northern cities, investment in London's public transport and the most efficient ways of meeting the country's future energy demands.

The creation of an infrastructure commission is expected to receive support from across the political spectrum, having been recommended by industry expert Sir John Armitt in 2013, worked up into a Draft Bill published for consultation in July 2014 and then adopted by the Labour Party as a pledge in its 2015 general election manifesto.

Infrastructure planning expert Robbie Owen of Pinsent Masons said: "The chancellor should be congratulated for recognising the broad consensus that clearly exists on the need for a new way of planning the UK’s medium to long term national infrastructure requirements. This was evident from all of the work done by the Armitt Review over the last two to three years, which concluded that a National Infrastructure Commission was the right vehicle for medium to long term planning."

"The chancellor couldn’t have picked a better person to head up the new Commission, needing as it does a senior and well respected politician and someone who knows the infrastructure terrain and all of its competing priorities and interests well," he said.

"Energy and transport are familiar areas of course but it is noteworthy that the Commission is also to consider the relationship between infrastructure and housing, where there is a growing national crisis. It is also very encouraging that the Commission is to start work immediately, which will be considerably assisted by all of the work done by Sir John Armitt and his review team, including on the scope of a national infrastructure needs assessment and the draft Bill setting out the statutory basis for the Commission," Owen said.