This event organised by the Evening Standard had an authoritative line-up of speakers including the housing minister Yvette Cooper.

Questions from the public such as ‘Is there an actual housing crisis?’ were put to a panel consisting of the following speakers:

Yvette Cooper MP – Minister for Housing
Steve Norris – Former mayoral candidate and Conservative MP
Neale Coleman – Director of Business Planning and Regeneration, Greater London Assembly
Nigel Hugill – Property developer
Sir Terry Farrell – World renowned architect
Rowan Moore – Director of the Architecture Foundation

Several key points were raised
Yvette Cooper stated:
- The need to speed up and improve the current planning system
- The importance of encouraging local authorities to build new homes by providing a £500 million incentive.
- A reiteration of the government target of 3 million homes by 2020, “…we have to make this possible…”

The Government have continually reaffirmed their commitment to build 3 million new homes by 2020. To achieve this they have identified the planning system needs to be more responsive, leading to a system which enables rather than deters development.

Further Reading
Inital Evening Standard article
Evening Standard follow up article (including video)
Councils Offered 500m House Building Incentive
Government leans on local authorities