![Drayton 231009 003](/assets/blog/_resampled/CroppedFocusedImageWzI2MCwzNDAsIjUwLTUwIl0/Drayton-231009-003.jpg)
DELIVERY OF HOUSEBUILDING TARGETS WILL NOT BE STRAIGHTFORWARD
Published 17 July 2024
Amongst the considerable legislative programme which will be announced in today’s King’s Speech will be a commitment by the new government to build 1.5 million new homes in the next five years - a pledge backed by compulsory housebuilding targets, extra resources to enable the recruitment of hundreds of new planning officers, and a loosening of planning restrictions, writes Harry Downing.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves sees speeding up the delivery of new housing as a key plank in her focus on economic growth, and regards current planning restrictions as a barrier to achieving that ambition. She has also made it clear that she sees solving the housing shortage – including a chronic deficit in affordable homes – as a social imperative, and has promised an ‘interventionist approach’ to making it happen.
Encouragingly, there has been a recognition that to succeed in this plan, there will need to be a focus on infrastructure projects alongside the drive to build more new homes.
There are currently two main barriers to the delivery of sufficient new housing in the UK. The first, as Rachel Reeves has rightly identified, is our slow-moving and obstructive planning system. But that is not the only problem. Demand for new homes in the market needs be stimulated if developers are to be able to deliver them profitably.
That will require further cuts in interest rates to drive affordability for buyers, but it will also need the new government to deliver on its promise to prioritise economic growth. It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation: we need economic growth to be able to build new homes, but we need to be building new homes in order to drive economic growth.
As for planning reform, we should welcome this in principle, but as ever the devil will be in the detail. Reforming the National Planning Policy Framework, helping cash-strapped local authorities create more capacity in their planning departments, and helping developers negotiate issues such as Nutrient Neutrality and Biodiversity Net Gain are all significant challenges, not to mention overcoming the inevitable resistance to development which is strategically important nationally but which may not be so welcome locally.
This is not the first time an incoming government has made big promises on housebuilding. In 2019 the Conservatives made exactly the same pledge (300,000 new homes a year and mandatory housing targets), only for the commitment to be watered down and then abandoned altogether in 2023.
We have to hope that Keir Starmer’s administration, emboldened by a huge majority, has the courage to stick by its own commitment to building new homes, and that it manages to deliver the economic growth which is a prerequisite for those targets to be achieved.
Share this story
Arnolds Keys Blog
![120724](/assets/blog/_resampled/CroppedFocusedImageWzE2NSwxNjUsIjUwLTUwIl0/120724.jpg)
CHANGE IS IN THE AIR
12 July 2024
‘Change’ is a word which we have heard a lot of over the past six weeks, and even as the dust is settling on the election itself, we should expect... Read more >
![050724](/assets/blog/_resampled/CroppedFocusedImageWzE2NSwxNjUsIjUwLTUwIl0/050724.jpg)
NOW PRIME MINISTER, WE MUST TALK ABOUT HOUSING…
5 July 2024
It may be too early to predict accurately what effect last week's General Election will have, but it seems clear that change is in the air, writes Clive Hedges. Read more >
![AK RNS Art Show winner 2024](/assets/blog/_resampled/CroppedFocusedImageWzE2NSwxNjUsIjUwLTI3Il0/AK-RNS-Art-Show-winner-2024.jpg)
‘STARTLING’ PENCIL DRAWING OF HARE CARRIES OFF PRESTIGIOUS SPONSOR’S CHOICE AWARD AT ROYAL NORFOLK SHOW ART EXHIBITION
1 July 2024
A startling pencil drawing of a hare has carried off the prestigious Sponsor’s Choice Award at the Royal Norfolk Show Art Exhibition this year – recognising the work of a... Read more >
![220624](/assets/blog/_resampled/CroppedFocusedImageWzE2NSwxNjUsIjUyLTM3Il0/220624.jpg)
IT’S SHOWTIME!
22 June 2024
As spring moves into summer, we are once again entering show season, and in our county it kicks off with the biggest of the lot, the Royal Norfolk Show. Read more >