The housing system has been an “abject failure”, according to Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook in a speech in support of the government’s reform plans.
Pennycook has been vocal about the government’s promises to build 1.5 million homes By the end of this Parliament.
Speaking at the UK Real Estate and Infrastructure Forum (UKREiiF), Housing Secretary Matthew Pennycook said: “The case for radically changing the housing system we have inherited is uncontroversial.
“By all accounts, it was a miserable failure.
“As I have said many times, in many different parts of the country: The crisis of housing availability, affordability and quality produced by this system is ruining people’s lives and hindering economic growth and productivity.
“For this reason, we have set ourselves, as a government, the task of reforming this failed system root and branch.”
Pennycook went on to describe the government’s plans to change planning rules, provide more funding and speed up development so more homes can be built.
The government wants to bring in more investments and deliver 1.5 million new homes.
These changes are the biggest update to the housing and planning system in decades, Pennycook said.
He also acknowledged that the industry is facing difficult economic conditions, and said the government and developers need to continue to work together to solve problems, build more homes and support economic growth.
Pennycook added: “Although much has been achieved, it is clear there is still much more to do as we strive to achieve our incredibly stretch target of 1.5 million new homes in this Parliament.
“We need to finalize a range of legislative and policy measures. We must publish the final and revised national framework, and we will do so this summer. We must put our new national devolution plan into action, and we will put the required regulations in place in the coming weeks.”
Neil Leitch, managing director of development finance at Hampshire Trust Bank, said:
“There is no doubt that many of the areas being discussed reflect things that the industry has been raising for a long time and the additional focus on planning capacity, SME developers and housing delivery is welcome. But the bigger issue for me is whether any of it starts to change what people actually see on the ground because that is what ultimately matters.”
“If we look back and look at housing provision itself, I think there is still a valid question about where tangible improvement can be seen. The ambition to build 1.5 million homes is clearly important compared to recent levels of delivery, but the broader requirements in themselves are not new. We have known for more than twenty years that around 300,000 homes a year are needed, and yet we are still here discussing broadly the same requirements today despite population growth that has materially exceeded the assumptions made at the time.
“This should concern us all because over that period we have seen reforms, interventions and policy initiatives come and go, yet many of the fundamental barriers remain in exactly the same place.
“When I sit down with developers, the conversation rarely starts with housing targets or policy announcements. It starts with sites, plans and the practical reality of trying to move projects through a system that many feel is unpredictable and sometimes simply broken. I regularly hear stories about applications taking too long to simply register, planning officers changing mid-process and different interpretations being applied to live plans despite neither the application itself nor local planning policy fundamentally changing.”
