As the UK Government reinforced its commitment to boost the economy through tens of thousands of new jobs and ‘get Britain building’ this week, the construction industry has called for further progress.
Recommendations to support the building of 1.5 million homes has been offered by the the Home Builders Federation (HBF), following the release of new analysis of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.
Steve Turner, executive director of the Home Builders Federation, remained optimistic of the benefits to fast-track planning decisions, but has highlighted the importance of more market policy interventions and the need to address regulatory burdens.
He said: “Delivering the new homes the country needs has clear social benefits but also provides considerable economic ones too.
“If government provides a policy environment within which its ambitious housing targets can be delivered, it will create tens of thousands of jobs and generate investment in communities across the country.
“However, whilst the planning changes are a key part of this, we also need to see market policy interventions to support private buyers and the housing associations that take on private and affordable homes if supply is going to increase.”
The proposed reforms propose a target of 50 per cent affordable housing on land released from the Green Belt for residential development, as well as more affordable housing tenures, such as Social Rent.
However, the balance of tenures are noted to be split for local authorities to decide.
In a radical change of approach, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced today (9 May) that City Hall would actively explore the release of parts of London’s green belt for development.
His explanation was that ‘bold solutions are required to fix London’s housing crisis’.
He said: “We clearly face an extraordinary challenge.
“As mayor, I’m determined to give it everything we’ve got – with a radical step-change in our approach.
“We’ll be working with councils and others to secure as many new homes as we can on brownfield sites, both large and small, but we have to be honest with Londoners that this alone will not be enough to meet our needs.
“That’s why I’m announcing that City Hall’s new position will be to actively explore the release of parts of London’s green belt for development.”
While the Bill has been designed to help deliver on the Plan for Change by streamlining the building of 1.5 million homes and crucial infrastructure over the next five years through a modernised approval process, Turner stressed further improvements remained.
He added: “Government also needs to address the other constraints on development including delays as a result of the Building Safety Regulator, and the growing regulatory burden making many sites unviable to develop, which includes ensuring that housebuilder contributions to the Nature Restoration Fund are kept reasonable.”
So far the government has advised a single construction regulator will hold those responsible for building safety to account as part of the measures.
A mechanism is also due to be created to secure contributions from developers to the Nature Restoration Fund to direct towards identified actions.
One example would be species licensing for protected species, such as bats and badgers, as part of site survey commissioning, alongside mitigation plans.
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