10 COMMENT THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Patrick Mooney, editor of Housing, Management & Maintenance
WILL JENRICK’S REFORMS SUCCEED WHERE OTHERS HAVE FAILED?
HMM news editor and housing consultant Patrick Mooney bemoans the recent ‘revolving door’ of Housing Ministers, and speculates on Robert Jenrick’s chances of success.
very Housing Secretary or Minister that I can remember promises two things –to overhaul the planning system and to get Britain building more homes - and yet each new policy initiative largely fails to deliver the houses and flats we badly need, so will Robert Jenrick be any more successful than his prede- cessors? The latest figures on housebuilding starts and completions are not a good portent, in fact they are pretty poor. The impact of the lockdown and Covid restrictions has had a predictably negative impact on the construc- tion sector, which it will take some time to recover from. But the figures give the Housing Secretary plenty of food for thought, and it will be interesting to see how he reacts. Back in August he unveiled his landmark
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THE SCALE OF THE PROBLEM WHICH THE REFORMS ARE TRYING TO RESOLVE IS APPARENT IN THE MOST RECENT NEW HOUSING FIGURES
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planning reforms, which will see land across England divided into three categories – for growth, renewal or protection. There will be a presumption towards development, rather than against, with a simpler system of devel- oper contributions through an Infrastructure Levy replacing Section 106 agreements and the Community Infrastructure Levy. Jenrick described them as “once in a generation” changes to sweep away an outdated planning system and boost building. Planning applica- tions based on pre-approved “design codes” will get an automatic green light – eliminating a whole stage of local authority oversight within designated zones. But some practition- ers were less effusive, labelling the new planning policies as undemocratic, disruptive and rushed, with Alan Jones, the president of RIBA, describing them as creating “the next generation of slum housing.”
Most people will probably measure the success of the planned changes in terms of whether they deliver the big numbers of houses and flats, in places where they are
needed and of a good standard, principally in terms of their quality and size. They also need to be supported by the right levels of infra- structure in terms of roads, schools, leisure facilities and GP surgeries.
HUGE FALL IN STARTS AND COMPLETIONS The scale of the problem which the reforms are trying to resolve is apparent in the most recent new housing figures released by Mr Jenrick’s department. These show the number of new homes completed in the April to June quarter was just 15,950, which represents a sizable drop of 62 per cent compared to the January to March period, which itself was down five per cent on the previous quarter at the end of 2019. Completions are now 67 per cent below their peak in the March quarter 2007 and 37 per cent below their previous low point in March quarter 2013.
In fact the most recent quarter’s figures are the lowest recorded number of completions
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