IPPR recommends government
considers measures to force developers to build, or face
sanctions.
A new report by the Institute for
Public Policy Research into England's planning system finds that
the government will have to tackle unproductive land speculation
and ramp up strategic planning capability if it wants to meet its
housebuilding targets.
While many blame the planning system,
significant non-planning related barriers exist in the delivery
of house building, such as developers slowing their build rates
or securing permission and then not building.
New analysis by the think tank finds
that developers have secured planning permission for over 1.4
million homes since 2007 but have not gone on to build them.
Common reasons for this include developers wanting to increase
the land's value before selling it on and land banking to slow
building rates and maintain high house
prices.
Contrary to the framing about ‘ripping
up the red tape to get Britain building', the think tank says
this is the wrong approach. The new report states that the
planning system is crucial for the government to achieve its
ambitious plan to build 1.5 million new homes by the end of the
current parliament.
Rather than removing planning
regulations, and succumbing to the ‘builders v blockers' debate,
IPPR recommends strengthening the planning system, to support the
delivery of house building while also supporting the government's
missions to restore nature, generate clean energy and build other
crucial infrastructure.
Part of this will involve increasing
capacity and funding for local planning teams, who have been
increasingly strained since the austerity years. But it also
involves national and regional strategic policies. The think tank
recommends:
-
Exploring new laws to force
developers to build within a certain time frame of securing planning
permission, or face sanctions
-
Creating a new Cabinet
Office team to
produce a national spatial strategy to oversee land
use
-
Tackling blockers to
development at source by ensuring monitoring and enforcement is appropriately
resourced
Dr Maya Singer Hobbs, senior
research fellow at IPPR,
said:
“The government doesn't need to
rip up the planning system to build 1.5 million new homes. Many
of the blockers to housing and infrastructure delivery are not
planning related. Reasons include water shortages, private
developers slowing delivery to maintain profits, and a lack of
strategic oversight of large infrastructure
projects.
“Market driven house-building is
broken, and won't deliver the 1.5 million homes the government
has promised.
“Years of deregulation and cuts to
organisations like the Environment Agency means the planning
system now operates as the last bastion of defence against bad
design, nature degradation, pollution and over extraction of our
waterways. We must support local, regional and national planners
to do their job.
“This is not about pitting NIMBYs
against YIMBYs, it is about ensuring the government achieves its
ambitious targets whilst also maintaining local support and high
quality.”
