The Bureau of Investigative Journalism report:

Housebuilders and councils in Britain’s biggest cities are failing to comply with affordable housing targets, and even ripping up legal commitments to build cheaper homes.

A three-month study by the Bureau has established that 60% of the biggest housing developments currently in the planning system are falling short of local affordable housing targets, preventing thousands of cheaper homes being built.

The investigation reveals:

  • Huge cuts to the proportion of affordable housing in one of the UK’s largest housing projects

  • How none of Birmingham’s biggest housing developments meet its 35% affordable housing target

  • And separately the investigation also shows how financial viability assessments on behalf of a leading housebuilder repeatedly persuaded councils that having larger affordable housing quotas would make schemes uneconomic.

You can read the full story here. 

Matthew Burgess
http://www.mattburgess.co
I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.