18 COMMENT
THE INDUSTRY ADVOCATE
Brian Berry, chief executive of the Federation of Master Builders
Brian Berry considers whether or not the much-anticipated Housing White Paper was worth the wait
build-up was certainly protracted and some commentators saw this as a sign that the Government had something radical up its sleeve. As it turned out, there were no major fireworks in Sajid Javid’s speech, as he unveiled the contents of what the Government intended to do to fix the country’s “broken” housing market. This shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. The
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idea that Theresa May was going to fire the starting pistol for a mass public sector building programme, or concrete over vast swathes of the green belt, was always a bit fanciful. Yes, Javid did not mince his words and delivered a White Paper that was frank about the failures of previ- ous Governments when it came to housing. Nevertheless, the responses were more measured. Sensible steps forward on a wide range of different fronts, was the order of the day. From a developer’s perspective, there’s plenty
to be encouraged by in what was announced by Javid, particularly for those heading up small housebuilding firms. For starters, councils will now be required to ensure that at least 10 per cent of the sites allocated for housing in their local plans should be ‘of half a hectare or less.’ In other words, there will be an obligation to provide the sort of sites smaller scale housebuilders need. Research conducted by the Federation of
Master Builders (FMB) in 2016 found that 47 per cent of councils either had no up-to-date local plan or were set to deliver less than 20 per cent of their housing through sites of less than 1.5 hectares. This will match the experiences of many developers and underlines the importance of embedding the virtues of small scale develop- ment in the minds of planners. The measure will
n 7 February, the Government's long- awaited Housing White Paper finally emerged. Was it worth the wait? The
go hand-in-hand with others, including what is in effect a presumption in favour of small sites within settlement boundaries to improve the supply of, and reduce the risks of, bringing forward smaller sites. Further underpinning all of this is perhaps
one of defining measures in the White Paper, the Housing Delivery Test. This will require councils, each year, to demonstrate that housing is being delivered at roughly the rate at which it should be according to their local plan. If it is not, then a series of measures will kick in, ranging from the immediate allocation of a buffer stock of new sites to a presumption in favour of development. This is potentially a real game-changer, as it will force councils to be more realistic about where and at what rate housing will actually be delivered. Local plans minus the wishful thinking, you might call it. There was more good news in the form of
some common sense on planning department resourcing. Our research has shown that two- thirds of SME developers now see the chronic under-resourcing of planning departments as a significant impediment to increasing their output. So, in what seems like a reasonable move, the Government has proposed that councils be allowed to raise planning fees by 20 per cent, if they agree to ring-fence the funds to improve planning services. However, it’s critical that the Government
does not see this as a case of ‘job done.’ The National House Building Council recently released its housebuilding stats for 2015/2016 and they were undoubtedly disappointing, showing that the number of SME developers in the UK continued to decline. If the set of reforms around the White Paper don’t bring about any reversal in this situation, then it may well be time for something more radical.
THE IDEA THAT THERESA MAY WAS GOING TO FIRE THE STARTING PISTOL FOR A MASS PUBLIC SECTOR BUILDING PROGRAMME, OR CONCRETE OVER VAST SWATHES OF THE GREEN BELT, WERE ALWAYS A BIT FANCIFUL
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