4 INDUSTRY NEWS


HOUSEBUILDER & DEVELOPER


FROM THE EDITOR


James Parker


It seems somewhat difficult, even inappropriate, to try and focus on housebuilding in the surreal reality of a pandemic engulfing the world, and causing many deaths among the old and vulnerable even as we speak. However life, and work, must go on, and we need to combine absolute pragmatism in the face of this virus with a determination to not let the changes required overwhelm our work and personal lives.


By contrast, the huge challenges facing the housebuilding sector seem relatively minor. In the wake of Rishi Sunak’s first (and heavily coronavirus-framed) Budget, came an announcement from Secretary of State for Housing Robert Jenrick on ‘unlocking’ the planning system to unleash a hoped-for wave of housebuilding. The focus might have been swept away in the alarm around COVID-19, but for the sector it has a perhaps underestimated level of importance for upping the still-low levels of delivery, which needs to remain a priority.


One of the ideas the Government is going to consult on is expanding permitted development rights to enable empty buildings to be demolished and replaced by housing without requiring planning permission. This would apply to vacant commercial buildings, industrial buildings and residential blocks, but housing developers would need to demonstrate they’d be creating “well-designed new units which meet natural light standards.”


ON THE COVER


Max Halliwell of Mitsubishi Electric on why housebuilders should embrace the ‘electric economy’


03.20


HOUSEBUILDER & DEVELOPER


Patrick Mooney says something has to give to meet the UK’s housing needs – and not just planning


House prices across all English cities surpass 2007 peak for first time since financial crisis


Jenrick’s ‘Planning for the future’ document outlines a range of measures targeted at removing some of the planning barriers to housing schemes, but puts a firm emphasis on providing quality at the same time as the quantities needed to hit the 300,000 houses per year target. Planning snags have of course been long criticised by many housebuilders and industry bodies as being the chief reason that developments are not coming on stream with the rapidity many hope for. However, organisations like RIBA are now concerned about whether a removal of planning constraints on PDR schemes could lead to poor- quality developments getting through.


Jenrick said the plans were a move back to a “first principles” rethink of the planning system: “We must think boldly and creatively about the planning system to make it fit for the future.” There will soon be what the Ministry is claiming to be an “ambitious” white paper on reforming the planning system – pegged to come out in ‘spring,’ although we’ll see what coronavirus has to say about that. The Government has also set a deadline of December 2023 for all councils to produce up to date local plans (many of them are woefully behind on this), and is threatening to intervene if they fail to do so.


As so often, the intent behind all this is apparently good, it’s the means of delivering it that must be questioned. Part of going back to ‘first principles’ must surely mean that only practical, industry-focused approaches should be at the forefront, and what we don’t need is more well-wishing.


THE ROYAL TREATMENT


A 72-home luxury project in London is offering residents the opportunity to live in the only residential development with views of Buckingham Palace Gardens


Image courtesy of Northacre, go to page 18


WWW.HBDONLINE.CO.UK


This means that if we want “tree-lined streets,” (a central part of Jenrick’s team’s ideas), we will have to train enough people to plant them. And if, as our local authority expert columnist Patrick Mooney suggests on page 8, failure to deliver the required numbers is not the fault of planning departments, the Government and industry needs to take an honest look at where the fault does, in reality, lie.


James Parker


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