A UK housing commission has laid out new plans to tackle two issues reportedly at the centre of the housebuilding “crisis”.
The Prosper UK Housing Commission, led by former housing minister Gavin Barwell, has launched a blueprint to address declining housing demand and housebuilding viability, after an investigation found regulatory fees and taxes are preventing developers from fulfilling plans to build homes.
Published on Monday, the Solving the Housing Crisis: A Plan to Make Homes More Affordable in Every Postcode report outlined how weaker consumer confidence has meant developers have not been able to sell the homes they are already building, meanwhile rising regulatory costs matched with flat house prices has led to many housing schemes with planning permission no longer being viable.
The commission found that half the £76,000 rise in costs of building new homes since 2020 has stemmed from regulation, policy and tax, a reflection of last year which saw the number of granted planning permissions stoop to its lowest since 2013.
Speaking on the launch of the commission, Barwell said: “I’m pleased that even before the report is published the government has adopted one of our recommendations and the Conservatives have said they would implement another, but our recommendations are not ‘pick n mix’.
“Boosting demand without increasing supply will help a few people at the expense of everyone else, and tackling viability without tackling demand will make little difference. That is the view of the diverse group of industry experts who produced this report.”
The commission called for a three-year freeze on regulatory burdens as well as limiting section 106 to what a development needs rather than enforcing needs and requirements of communities onto the developer.
In West Suffolk, The Times reported, the developer of a 485-home scheme was asked to pay for swimming lanes and 98 “fitness stations” across the whole district.
Meanwhile a London student development that does not use gas is still being asked to fit gas connections to all student bedrooms.
Further recommendations included a new national planning service that would assess major planning applications against locally agreed policies, as well as to hold a national review of green belt land.
The Commission’s members, serving in a personal capacity, were Gavin Barwell (chair), David Gauke, András Kárpáti, Tim Collins, Lucian Cook, Richard Cook, Trevor Ivory, James Knight, Jackie Sadek, Emma Duncan, Tim Leunig and Mark Prisk. Their views are their own and not necessarily those of the organisations they work for.
Richard Cook, chief development officer at Clarion Housing Group said there is “no silver bullet to fix the housing market”, adding that the recommendations made by the commission will make a “significant difference in meeting the challenge”.
Barwell added: “Despite its welcome reforms of the planning system and funding for affordable housing, the government is falling far short of its ambition to build 1.5 million homes in five years, and the latest figures, particularly in London, are little short of catastrophic. The victims are all around us. A few are sleeping rough, but most are hidden, stuck in temporary accommodation or unable to buy a home as their parents did.
“Our housing crisis has been building for nearly 50 years and there is no silver bullet. Some of what we recommend won’t be popular, but unless we attack the problem from every angle it will only get worse.”
Lucian Cook, a member of the commission and director of residential research at Savills said a “bold holistic view is needed more than ever” to combat the housing crisis in the country.
Fellow member of the group, Jackie Sadek said the issue is “grossly hobbling our economy and selling our young people short”.
She added: “The social and fiscal costs are immense. We need to give this urgent attention, not speeches and slogans. The Commission has produced a systemic, long-term, workable plan to increase supply and make housing more affordable in every postcode.”
Solving the Housing Crisis: A Plan to Make Homes More Affordable in Every Postcode
