Planners have been able to ensure new development leads to more affordable housing since 1990, through powers known variously as planning obligations, affordable housing requirements or more technically "section 106 agreements".
In part this is because we can't afford not to: in the year before the recession, planning obligations were worth £5bn when total government investment in affordable housing was £7bn.
Swansea Council would not confirm amounts owing, despite having an officer responsible for "overseeing the management" of section 106 obligations and benefiting from an "up-to-date" planning obligations policy.
But beyond the nostalgic cladding, the guide only distracts from the true disaster of the entire starter homes initiative: that these houses, of which the Tories hope to see 200,000 built by 2020, will be exempt from the usual planning obligation to contribute towards affordable housing.
In a damning verdict for Knight Dragon, judge Nicholas Warren – who had also presided over the Heygate judgment – concluded: "This is a case where a company, robust enough to take on the development of a huge site over a period of 20 years … immediately asks to be relieved of a planning obligation freely negotiated by its predecessor.
If we don't make much fuller use of planning obligations this will be an almost impossible task.
It should ensure local authorities have adequately resourced planning departments that can cope with the new level of demand so they can meet their housing and planning obligations.
Missed targets: Westminster achieved its 30% target using planning obligations, while Brent managed 43% and Hounslow 27.2% affordable properties in all new builds granted.
Mr. Sharon's government has moved slowly, demanding that Palestinians act first to meet their peace plan obligations by breaking up militant factions carrying out violence against Israel.
But we know that 4,820 homes were built through planning obligations in 2012/13, without needing grants from the Homes and Communities Agency to make them viable.
