Planning Obstacles Stifle UK House Building Goals

A perfect storm of material and labour shortages, surges in the prices of building materials, and delays in the planning process have combined to reduce the number of new homes being constructed, according to an industry survey.

According to Property Reporter, a comprehensive survey of small-to-medium enterprise housebuilders in the UK, conducted by the Home Builders Federation, Close Brothers Property Finance and Travis Perkins, found:

Planning remains a significant barrier to increasing housing delivery over the next 12 months, with 94 per cent of SME housebuilders seeing delays in securing planning permission or discharging conditions stifling housing supply;

The situation worsening next year because of widespread local elections in May;

Some 78 per cent of housebuilders also seeing the supply and cost of materials as a major barrier to delivery (up from just 20 per cent last year); and

59 per cent saw the supply and cost of labour as a major barrier (up from 19 per cent last year).

The survey claims the construction industry is and will continue to be a key driver of economic recovery and it says SME builders must be able to play their part in this recovery and help create a more diverse sector, with a thriving local and regional network of home building firms.

Stewart Baseley, the executive chairman of the Home Builders Federation, said that recent decades have seen a reduction in SME builders and that every SME he contacted claimed they were suffering from delays to the planning process.

“SMEs are literally having to put their businesses on hold whilst local authorities delay the start of construction as their planning departments don’t have adequate capacity to process applications effectively,” he said.

“Allied to concerns on materials and staff, planning delays threatens the demise of even more SME builders.”

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