District councils across the country are committed to driving housing growth for their localities. Despite granting adequate permissions to meet their local housing need, schemes are not developed. Nationally, it is estimated that close to 45% of permissions granted are not yet under construction.

Last week, local authorities in Cambridgeshire, as part of the Eastern Powerhouse initiative, outlined proposals for councils to be given rights to force developers to build homes more quickly. The proposal involved penalising developers who sit on empty land by charging them council tax on all homes which are not built within five years. The District Councils' Network is putting together a paper on a range of proposals to give district councils powers to get permissions built out.