“We’re taking immediate action to make the dream of homeownership a reality through delivering 1.5 million homes by the next parliament and rebuilding Britain to deliver for working people.”
The planning system has often been blamed for a failure from successive governments to build enough homes with critics pointing to its expense, bureaucracy and vulnerability to Nimby-ism for driving a deepening housing crisis.
Starmer’s vow that Labour would be “builders not blockers” may still face some hurdles, however, according to a legal expert.
Robert Wofinden, partner and head of the residential team at law firm Browne Jacobson, said Labour could face action over its use of ‘grey belt’ land.
‘Grey belt’ is Labour’s term for under-utilised parts of the green belt, allowing developers to go ahead with projects on the likes of disused car parks in previously protected land.
“Government action to minimise the roadblocks to housebuilding is certainly a boon for developers, but by broadening the definition of what is considered as ‘grey belt’ land, it’s likely that we’ll see a rise in legal challenges against development plans in the short term,” said Wolfinden.
“Ambiguity around what is considered as ‘green belt’ or ‘grey belt’ will be a point of contention between developers, communities and local authorities, but once this has been stress-tested, we’ll then start to see some form of clarity for developers.
“It will be interesting to see in several months’ time how successful the national planning policy framework will be for UK housebuilding. This will be no quick fix, but in the long term, these plans could make a real difference.”
Labour’s decision to reinstate mandatory housing targets, which were made advisory by the Conservatives in December 2022, also sees councils facing a bigger onus to get building at a time when the homelessness crisis threatens to overrun budgets.
Councillor Adam Hug, Local Government Association housing spokesperson, said local people still must have an important say in where homes are built.
“For councils to share the government’s ambition to tackle local housing challenges, there must be a collaborative approach,” said councillor Hug.
“It is councils and communities who know their local areas and are therefore best placed to make judgement decisions on how to manage competing demand for land use through the local plan-led system.
“Getting housebuilding targets in the right place is a difficult task, so any national algorithms and formulas should be supplemented with local knowledge and involvement by councils and communities who know their areas best.”
Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said that councils also need long-term funding to deliver enough social homes to make housing more affordable.
“Planning reform alone is not enough,” said Neate. “The government must now put its money where its mouth is at the spring spending review by committing enough investment to deliver the 90,000 social homes per year for ten years, that will clear social housing waiting lists and end homelessness for good.”
Labour’s reforms have earned the praise of pro-housebuilding groups.
The YIMBY Alliance’s Kane Emerson told the Big Issue that the reforms show a “strong change in tone” from local government.
“Workers in areas with the highest unaffordability for housing will particularly benefit from having more new homes and more options. Too often workers are priced out of the areas with the best opportunities,” Emerson added.
“YIMBYS, particularly young people, are keen to see more new homes being built close to good transport links and integrated into existing communities.”
Stephen Teagle, chair of the board of The Housing Forum, said the government’s “ambitious approach and clear rhetoric showed that there can be no excuse for failing to deliver much-needed new homes”.
The government has increased housing targets for London and Cambridge since originally setting out planning reforms earlier this year, according to analysis from the Resolution Foundation.
But the think tank found housing targets have since been reduced in eight of the UK’s 10 largest cities, including Birmingham, Manchester and Sheffield, which are currently more affordable.
Emily Fry, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: “We should also focus housebuilding efforts on areas with huge economic potential, including our major cities across the Midlands and the North. Building should happen not only where productivity is highest now, but where it might most plausibly be raised in the future.”
Despite the reforms, housing minister Matthew Pennycook told MPs on the housing committee last month that delivering the promised 1.5 million homes while in power was “more difficult than expected in opposition”.
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