In the final months of the previous government, England’s parliament approved a record low number of housing schemes.
Planning permissions data for the year to June showed just 31,562 housing proposals were approved, an annual decrease of 8%.
Experts say developers are reluctant to submit planning bids due to costs and a lack of confidence in the market, underscoring the challenges facing Labor, which has pledged to create 1.5 million new homes over five years.
The government says it is committed to achieving its goals and is working to “unwind” stalled projects.
Only 7,609 housing projects – ranging from applications to build single properties to proposals for large-scale new housing developments – were given permission in England between April and June this year – the lowest level on record since 1979.
Keir Starmer pledges to crack down on so-called “NIMBY” (not in my backyard) activists blocking new housing developments and floats the idea of a new “planning passport” to speed up progress on projects in the system .
But the figures show the proportion of applications rejected by councils is not significantly higher.
Conversely, the overall number of planning applications lodged by developers to build new homes has fallen sharply.
Nearly 44,500 residential applications were approved in the year to June, a decline every year since 2017.
Neal Hudson, of housing research firm Built Place, said: “People won’t buy new homes because of high prices and high mortgage rates. Housing associations won’t pay for new affordable homes because they focus on restoration Existing Homes Many investors don’t buy because they worry about taxes and regulations.
“So housebuilders and developers have responded by cutting back on the number of homes they intend to build, thereby reducing the number of homes they are prepared to try and complete planning for.”
Still, most analysts agree planning reforms are important if the government is to increase the delivery rate of new homes.
PricedOut, which advocates for affordable housing, said the government’s proposed changes to planning rules that could allow more homes to be built in suburbs “exactly where housing is needed most” would be “a good start”.
One proposal is a “planning passport” which would allow proposals that meet design and quality standards to receive a preset “yes”.
Consultation on Labour’s proposed housing building targets Ends on Tuesday.
Planning application data will be monitored to check whether the council is achieving its targets over the next five years.
Kensington and Chelsea, the cheapest place to buy a house in the UK, will need an extra 4,271 new homes each year, almost 16 times more than the latest average of 267.
The council said it was London’s smallest borough and did not have enough land to meet the government’s targets.
However, the number of new homes in some areas has already exceeded the new target.
For example, Salford is expected to add 1,475 new homes per year, but will average 2,648 new homes per year between 2020 and 2023.
