The planning and infrastructure bill published on Tuesday is both a declaration of intent and a show of strength by the government. Rightly recognising how much is at stake politically, particularly with regard to younger voters frustrated by high housing costs, ministers have made up their minds to help them. Decision-making will be streamlined and development corporations empowered. Once the law is changed, councils and landowners will find it harder to stand in the way of what ministers regard as progress.
How this scheme pans out will be one of the big tests of Sir Keir Starmer’s government. It is right that compulsory land purchases will be made easier and cheaper, and steps taken to speed up clean energy projects. Reforms of the leasehold system must soon follow, to ensure that buyers of new homes are not ripped off by freeholders.
But the target of 1.5m new homes within five years is unlikely to be delivered. Even were it achievable, an expansion of housing on this scale might not suit property developers – whose interests are only partly aligned with those of their customers. While first-time buyers want prices to come down, sellers want to maximise profits. An investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority into suspected anti-competitive conduct by housebuilders continues.
Critics of Labour’s approach are also concerned about the build-to-rent sector. A report from the Common Wealth thinktank warned that a small number of private equity-backed businesses could end up in charge of a large chunk of any new housing. While private rentals will inevitably form part of the mix in new neighbourhoods, Angela Rayner’s department must ensure that councils and housing associations are able to offer decent numbers of desperately needed tenancies. The single most damaging effect of the UK’s perpetually overheated property market is the chronic shortage of homes for people on low incomes. Ms Rayner recently secured an additional £350m in funding for social homes. More will be needed.
Once the framework is in place, much will depend on the plans that local areas come up with, and the decisions taken by development corporations. Ministers as well as mayors and councils should encourage them to be bold, drawing inspiration from other times and places. Builders must not be permitted endlessly to repeat the same unimaginative templates. Sir Keir and Ms Rayner should go on more visits, after their recent trip to a new Duchy of Cornwall project in Cornwall.
By emphasising green infrastructure, the bill portrays planning reform as an environmental cause as well as a social and economic one. But housebuilders have a poor record on delivering nature-friendly features. And while increased support for renewables is welcome, there can be no denying the strain placed on net zero plans by carbon-intensive construction. The UK’s housing affordability crisis is the result of rightwing policy choices, above all the decision to cut back on publicly owned housing and a right-to-buy policy that ended up benefiting landlords. It must not become an excuse for an environmentally damaging property boom in which developers are the winners.
Planning reforms do have the potential to boost social mobility and relieve overstressed households. But this will not happen naturally. Political skill and determination will be necessary to ensure that people, not profit, are at the heart of plans for new towns – and that nature is protected as far as possible.
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