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The housing minister has defended Michael Gove鈥檚 recent decisions to call in a series of housing schemes on design grounds, emphasising that new homes must meet the government鈥檚 criteria. 

Gove, the secretary of state at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), has drawn criticism from the housebuilding sector after intervening in planning applications in Tunbridge Wells, East Cheshire and Leamington Spa. 

The last of these decisions led to AC Lloyd Homes, the SME housebuilder behind the 200-home development, shut down its operations entirely. 

Speaking to 好色先生TV his week at the Chartered Institute of Housing鈥檚 annual conference, Rachel MacLean, minister of state for housing at DLUHC, said she was not aware of the particulars of the AC Lloyd case but stressed her support for the department鈥檚 approach. 

鈥淲e want a flourishing housing sector, which is why we are committed to building 300,000 homes, but they must be the right homes in the right places supported by local communities,鈥� she said. 

鈥淲e cannot have homes that don鈥檛 meet the government鈥檚 criteria, and those are the criteria that local people want.  

鈥淭hey want homes that are sensitive to the area, they want homes that are affordable, they want homes that are sustainable [and] they want them to be beautiful and well designed, so we will make no apologies for being very clear about those in those high-profile planning decisions.鈥� 

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DLUHC has also received criticism from the housing sector recently for its proposed infrastructure levy.  

Thirty industry bodies 鈥� including The National Housing Federation, the Home Builders Federation, the Construction Industry Council, the Royal Town Planning Institute, Build UK and Shelter 鈥� urging the government to scrap its plans on the grounds that it would result in fewer affordable homes being built in England. 

MacLean defended the policy saying: 鈥淎t the moment, we know that the problem with development is that often the infrastructure does not come forward with the development.  

鈥淪o [when] you get a big development, you don鈥檛 get the necessary road improvements, you don鈥檛 get the GP surgery, you don鈥檛 get the doctors, the schools, the play parks that communities want. That problem has to be fixed somehow.鈥� 

However, she added that development of the policy was 鈥渇ar from finished鈥� and that the government would 鈥渃onsider alternative suggestions鈥� from the industry. 

She said she was confident that 鈥渘atural concerns鈥� that the levy in its current form would discourage brownfield development could be ironed out. 

鈥淲hat the sector is telling us is brownfield sites are different 鈥� a brownfield site just next door to another one might be completely different in terms of what remediation it needs,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o of course, we may have to make changes to make it work.鈥� 

The minister also addressed criticism of the revolving door of Conservative housing ministers, of which she is the 15th since 2010.  

MacLean said that while she would 鈥渕uch prefer鈥� to have been in the role longer, the government had provided 鈥渟tability and consistency鈥� through multi-year funding settlements. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 wrong to focus on personalities,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hat we should be focusing on is what the government鈥檚 doing, which is delivering social homes delivering homes across the country, backed by significant amounts of public money.鈥� 

She also offered reassurance to the industry on the issue of second staircases, promising that the government鈥檚 response to the consultation, in anticipation of which thousands of homes have been put on hold, would be coming 鈥渧ery, very soon鈥�. 

鈥淚 am aware that that is causing delays in the sector,鈥� she added.