Sunday, December 15, 2024
Are Labour's English housebuilding targets achieveable?
Now, with proposals having been published to set individual targets for each planning authority and new rules that will allow for housebuilding on poorer quality green-belt land, one leading housebuilder has stepped in to point out that it isn't as simple as reducing 'red tape' and centrally mandated diktat.
The Guardian reports that the Barratt Redrow chief executive, David Thomas, when asked by the BBC if there were enough workers to build the extra homes promised by Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner, said: “The short answer is no.”
These plans are already meeting resistance within local government, with councils sharing the ambition but uneasy over the means. The Local Government Association Housing Spokesperson, Councillor Adam Hug is quoted on their website as saying there needs to be a collaborative approach to this issue:
It is councils and communities who know their local areas and are therefore best placed to make judgement decisions on how to manage competing demand for land use through the local plan-led system. Getting housebuilding targets in the right place is a difficult task, so any national algorithms and formulas should be supplemented with local knowledge and involvement by councils and communities who know their areas best.
“Planning is about creating communities linked with the right economic activity and public services, whilst conserving and enhancing the natural and local environment. Local democratic discretion and flexibility need to remain important elements of the planning system.
“Planning reform also needs to be supported by further work to tackle workforce challenges, the costs of construction and the financial headroom of local authorities and housing associations to build the social and truly affordable homes we desperately need.
“In order to deliver the homes we need, government must work with councils and the housebuilding industry to ensure there is a suitable pipeline of sustainable sites, which once allocated in a Local Plan and / or given planning permission, are indeed built out. While councils recognise that swift decision-making on planning applications is critical, with nearly 9 in 10 applications granted, people cannot and do not live in planning permissions. Local authorities must be given greater powers to ensure prompt build out of sites with planning permission, as well as the ability to set planning fees at a local level.”
David Thomas has other concerns. He believes that the government would have to “revolutionise the market, revolutionise planning, revolutionise methods of production” to make their target achievable:
The Home Builders Federation (HBF) echoed Thomas’ sentiments.
The HBF told the BBC the UK “does not have a sufficient talent pipeline” of builders to meet Labour’s goal, citing recruitment constraints with poor perception and lack of training within schools, not enough apprenticeships, and the cost of taking on apprentices.
The industry body said the sector had not “attracted” enough recruits in recent years, saying a quarter of tradespeople were aged over 50.
The concerns from within the construction industry have dampened prospects for the prime minister’s construction targets, after he said on 5 December his government would “absolutely” push development through.
At the end of the day, this programme depends on finance. Private housebuilders will not play ball with the government's ambition if there is no profit in it for them, while building social homes will require a big injection of government cash.
And then to add to that there are the inevitable delays in getting the programme off the ground, including surveys, flood risk assessments, highway concerns, educational requirements, wildlife surveys, drainage, heritage and a host of other factors that form part of the modern planning system.
No matter how you fast track the system, these deveelopments have to be the right ones in the right places, linked to communities, jobs and services. You can't just conjure them out of thin air.
Already, the feeling is developing that government has bitten off more than it can chew with an overly ambitious target.
And one more thing. A lot of the new Labour MPs have been elected for constituencies in leafy countryside with quaint English towns. Standby for the uproar when the first applications come in for green belt land.
And one more thing. A lot of the new Labour MPs have been elected for constituencies in leafy countryside with quaint English towns. Standby for the uproar when the first applications come in for green belt land.
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Yes workers need recruiting. Bring them out of retirement, train apprentices. For land use flats take up less space, likewise maisonettes. They can house larger numbers of people possibly with fewer work force needed Modular housing has advanced since prefab days and is well used in Europe.AS IT IS FACTORY BUILT they can be moved and built with less labour involved. The obsession with having a house to live in will be out of reach for many until MASS PRODUCTION is installed. Therefore SOCIAL HOUSING for RENT can plug that gap for the forceable future.An example being rent for 10 years then the opportunity to buy AS LONG AS ONE IS REBUILT TO COMPENSATE.
Are we going to have same as same as and not move forward into new ideas ditching old ways and moving on into a new and better future? I know that sounds like Utopia but that does not stop us from aiming for it. future
Are we going to have same as same as and not move forward into new ideas ditching old ways and moving on into a new and better future? I know that sounds like Utopia but that does not stop us from aiming for it. future
# posted by 
: 10:31 PM
: 10:31 PM
The reality is that there are sufficient planning approvals already given to meet the governments targhet. But developers are more interested ion building in the South East where prices therby profits are higher, this means that some areas ,as in Kent, are easily meeting targets but infrastructure has not met demand.One thing the government could do is tax Air bnbs, they cobstitute 5% of all properties in my area and lay vacant for many months of the year. Facilitating student accomodation could help so that family housing is released back into the community. There is so much more that could be done without building on sensitive sites
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# posted by : 7:38 AM
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