Housing crisis needs action on planning, says committee

The Built Environment Committee has stressed the need for the government to urgently address barriers to building much needed new homes.

The Lords committee said that the role of SMEs in the housebuilding industry has collapsed and that they should be supported by reducing planning risk, making more small sites available, and increasing access to finance.

Furthermore, with an ageing population, the report says that more specialist and mainstream housing suitable for the elderly is necessary, as are more up-to-date local plans, which need to be simpler, clearer, and more transparent. Planning departments need more resource to avert an emerging crisis.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe DBE CMG, chair of the committee, said: “The government’s ambitious target of 300,000 new homes per year will only be met if government takes action to remove the barriers for housebuilders, particularly for SMEs who 35 years ago built 39 per cent of new homes but now build just 10 per cent.

“The planning system needs urgent reform. Currently, less than half of local authorities have an up-to-date local plan: more councils need simple, clear and transparent local plans. Any new planning system will only work if local planning authorities have the resources and staff to implement it. Skills shortages in the construction, design and planning sectors must be addressed to unlock the required development, including the green skills needed to address climate change.

“Uncertainty and the absence of a clear policy direction has only exacerbated housing problems. Our report provides a package of proposals to help deliver much needed housing and address the critical undersupply of new homes.”

David Renard, Local Government Association housing spokesperson, said: “We fully support the committee’s call for more investment in increasing social housing stock, if we are to tackle the housing crisis. By giving councils the powers and resources to build 100,000 much-needed social homes a year, we can help the government meet its annual target of 300,000 new homes. This should include further reform of Right to Buy.

“While planning is not the barrier to housebuilding, with nine in 10 planning applications approved by councils, the committee is right to highlight the need for planning authorities to be adequately resourced. Developers also need to be incentivised to build housing more quickly, with over one million homes given planning permission in the past decade not yet built, while an additional one million homes allocated in local plans are waiting to be brought forward by developers for planning permission.”