To meet its manifesto pledge of 1.5 million new homes within this parliamentary term, Labour must deliver just over 1,150 new homes consistently every single working day for the next five years without defaulting – this is roughly equivalent to delivering at least five large scale housing estates every single week to achieve the newly set housing target.
A more detailed plan is needed as a priority from the UK Government on how their aim will be delivered and when. There must also be full disclosure on infrastructure planning to support homes as they are being built. Developments must have comprehensive design regarding essential services such as education, policing, health, transport, and employment – it cannot ever be a case of weaving thousands of additional new homes into current metropolitan areas and expecting the current structure to absorb the additional pressures.
In addition, there must be due consideration for ensuring there is a wide-ranging skillset and workforce in place that can bring this enormous vision to life. There must be cross party cooperation and strong stakeholder engagement to ensure plans are workable, realistic, and can be delivered within the timeframe promised.
Each area identified as having potential for new housing must pay full respect to greenbelt status, and there should ideally be a focus on bringing brownfield land back to purposeful use first. However, Chancellor Rachel Reeves stated that the UK Government intends to build on some green belt land, but this should involve a full review to prioritise alternative available land to achieve their housing targets.
Referring to the planning system ‘an obstacle’, Ms Reeves committed to building their targeted package of new homes. However, there must also be a variety of different tenures when it comes to constructing new homes to ensure both buyers and renters are served well.
To implement such a bold task, it is right to review the entire system from top to bottom, implement potential improvements and make better use of technology for both insight and delivery. With the UK population expected to surge to around 70m within the next ten years, it is critical that supply keeps up with demand. Currently, the housing sector continues to suffer from a drastic undersupply of sustainable new homes, which in turn is contributing to artificially higher costs for both buyers and renters.
Nathan Emerson, CEO at Propertymark, comments:
“There is no doubt that the new UK Government must prioritise building homes the nation desperately needs, and that is why we welcome a commitment to deliver new homes and review green belt boundaries with a view to prioritising brownfield and grey belt land to meet manifesto pledges.
“Local councils need as much support as possible in meeting the new UK Government’s aims. Building 1.5 million new homes by the next general election is an challenging target, but Propertymark would like to see urgent clarity and detail as to how this ambition can be achieved. This goal would require over a thousand new homes to be built every working day before 2029.”
