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COMMENT
Turbocharging housing or hitting roadblocks?
Despite planning reforms aimed at delivering 1.5 million homes by 2029, challenges persist. Lawrence Turner of Boyer explores the impact of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ recent announcements.
I
n her high profi le January speech the Chancellor Rachel Reeves outlined plans to go ‘further and faster’ to deliver the Government’s Plan for Change. Her announcement included a commitment to several high profi le schemes
including the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, the redevelopment of Old Traff ord in Manchester, and an increase of housing around transport hubs. At Boyer, our fi rst reaction was to welcome the Government’s latest
announcement on planning reforms and its commitment to introducing the Planning and Infrastructure Bill this spring. But we are all too aware that this is no mean feat: as the Home Builders Federation (HBF) recently reported, new build completions saw a “signifi cant decline,” to just 198,610 in 2024, illustrating a substantial gap between the current situation and the Government’s ambitions to enable 1.5 million new homes by mid-2029. We support the promotion of new homes near to transport hubs, forming the
most sustainable patterns of development. We agree that planning applications for housing in such sustainable locations should receive a default ‘yes’ response.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF CHANGE It is worth considering that the means necessary to considerably increase housing delivery must refl ect the immensity of the challenge. And there’s lots to learn from the past in this respect: many politicians – Liz Truss springs to mind – refer to ‘cutting red tape’ to deliver much-needed change. But it is important to consider why the red tape exists – what it is intended to protect, and how the system will function in its absence? For example, in introducing ‘devolution’ to push ‘strategic’ planning decisions
up a tier, how will local communities react? In using Simplifi ed Planning Zones to fast-track planning applications for data centres and associated infrastructure, will the necessary scrutiny be lost?
HOW WILL THE REFORM BE RECEIVED AT THE LOCAL LEVEL? While we recognise that meeting the Government’s ambitious housebuilding pledge necessitates further planning reform to tackle the housing crisis, this
Housing Management & Maintenance February/March 2025
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