The scrapping of mandatory housing targets caused concern for developers and, ultimately, those looking to buy or rent homes.
This took momentum out of the market, removing any requirement for local authorities to rubber stamp new developments and giving greater credence to those who objected most loudly to proposed schemes.
Coupled with the existing planning system, notoriously difficult, costly and time-consuming to navigate, this meant that fewer homes were being built.
Data from the NHBC released in July showed that new home registrations were down 23% in the second quarter of 2024, in comparison to the same period in 2023.
Despite these challenges, larger developers were mostly still able to operate in these conditions. They have the experience and the resources to navigate the planning system and often work collaboratively with councils on large housing schemes.
For smaller developers, the removal of targets compounded the difficulty and cost in gaining planning permission, as well as the tough market conditions over the past couple of years.
Therefore, Labour’s pledge to bring back housing targets and reform the broken planning system is a welcome move to stimulate housebuilding once more and support SME developers.
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It has just kicked off a consultation on its plans, including ensuring all councils develop housing plans and setting a higher expectation for how many homes must be built.
This is the first step towards addressing the housing shortage.
Not only will this support SME developers, but the new reforms should also help to regenerate areas that may have been overlooked before to create more homes for a growing population. Labour plans to do this using grey-belt and brownfield sites, to rejuvenate areas that would otherwise be disused.
Whilst the use of grey-belt land (a new type of land category which technically formed part of green-belt land previously) has faced scrutiny, it will be interesting to see whether the planning reforms proposed will enable Labour to get homes built on this land and more generally.
In comparison, building on brownfield sites has been a concept that other governments have pledged previously. However, there are still large swathes of brownfield sites across the UK that would benefit from a second lease of life, if it is economic to do so.
Whilst there is still a mountain to climb when it comes to fulfilling Labour’s ambitious housing target of 1.5 million homes in the next five years, an ambitious target is far better than none at all.
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