The Labour Party has unveiled a raft of measures in its general election manifesto to “get Britain building again”.
The party has pledged to reform the current planning regime, which it said currently “acts as a major brake on economic growth”. In its manifesto, it said: “We will set out new national policy statements, make major projects faster and cheaper by slashing red tape, and build support for developments by ensuring communities directly benefit. We will also update national planning policy to ensure the planning system meets the needs of a modern economy, making it easier to build laboratories, digital infrastructure, and gigafactories.”
The party also promised to “reform decision-making to shift power away from Westminster to turbo-charge the efforts of mayors across the country, with new powers over transport, skills, housing and planning, and employment support, along with new growth plans for towns across the country”.
It also pledged to replace the current business rates system in England, which it said currently “disincentivises investment, creates uncertainty and places an undue burden on our high streets”, and replace it with a new system to “level the playing field between the high street and online giants, better incentivise investment, tackle empty properties and support entrepreneurship”.
Other pledges included the building of 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament and return of mandatory housing targets. In its manifesto, Labour added that it would take “tough action to ensure that planning authorities have up-to-date local plans and reform and strengthen the presumption in favour of sustainable development” and that it would increase the rate of stamp duty surcharge paid by non-UK residents to fund additional local authority planning officers and would not be afraid to “make full use of intervention powers to build the houses we need”.
It also said it would take a ‘brownfield first’ approach and release lower quality ‘grey belt’ land for development and “take a more strategic approach to greenbelt land designation and release to build more homes in the right places”.
Further promises included the reform of compulsory purchase compensation rules to improve land assembly, speed up site delivery and deliver housing, infrastructure, amenity and transport benefits in the public interest. It also promised to work with local authorities to give first-time buyers the first chance to buy homes and introduce a permanent, comprehensive mortgage guarantee scheme, to support first-time buyers who struggle to save for a large deposit, with lower mortgage costs.
The Labour Party also pledged to deliver the “biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation” by strengthening planning obligations to ensure new developments provide more affordable homes.
Industry reaction
Justin Young, chief executive, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
“Labour is right in identifying planning reforms as a policy lever for boosting economic productivity in today’s manifesto, with numerous academic studies having found positive correlation between GDP growth and housebuilding completions. But the opportunities that arise from reform go well beyond housing. Legislation that makes the delivery of any infrastructure is welcomed; red tape is currently acting as a significant barrier to growth. One such example can be found in Cambridge, where the failure to deliver a new water reservoir is threatening to stall the UK’s fast-growing, £94bn a year life sciences industry, which has a critical mass in the city.
“As well as speeding up decision-making, planning reform is needed for our housebuilding sector to function efficiently, which is needed if build targets are to be met. Forty years ago, SME housebuilders were responsible for around 40% of housing delivery annually, but by 2024, that number is below 10%. To make matters worse, the number of SME housebuilders has decreased by 80% over the last 30 years. When taking these facts into account, it becomes very apparent why we continue to face a housing crisis and fall short of our housing targets. A simplification of the planning system – which is currently expensive to navigate and riddled with uncertainty – should help reverse this decline by delivering significant certainty.
“Policymakers must also address the skills shortage – otherwise the UK will be unable to deliver on its 300,000 homes a year target and £805bn infrastructure pipeline. To overcome these challenges, RICS wants the incoming government, whoever that may be, to consider and implement workable policy solutions. We are calling for the creation of a cross-department skills taskforce, responsible for identifying gaps and opportunities in the workforce, as Labour has set out to do with their proposed Skills England body.”
Melanie Leech, chief executive, British Property Federation
“It’s positive to see Labour reaffirm their commitment to an industrial strategy and to working closely with business to deliver its ambitions. The property industry has the desire, skills and capital to invest in the UK’s built environment and a clear economic strategy and a re-set of our partnership with the next government will unlock billions of pounds to build the more productive economy, new homes, rejuvenated town centres and sustainable future the UK needs.
“Labour is right to focus on improving the planning system as the key enabler of growth. Introducing effective strategic planning means that decisions are made at the appropriate national or regional level, rather than just locally, which will allow us to deliver more homes against a clear target and also provide the logistics infrastructure and business spaces we need to support sustainable communities.
“Measures to ensure up-to-date local plans are in place and a new approach to ‘grey belt’ land are also welcome, as is the commitment to more local authority planners so that existing projects can be unblocked, and local authorities are better able to engage with our sector to provide for future needs.”
Paul Rickard, managing director, Pocket Living
“Given that the downturn in construction remains the biggest drag on this nation’s GDP, planning reform without the need to increase public spending should be low hanging fruit for any future government. This manifesto seems to be a genuine attempt at starting that difficult and long overdue process and getting more new homes built, though it is vital that we focus on numbers delivered as opposed to specific tenures.
“We all know that brownfield and previously developed sites offer the best prospect of increasing supply, which is why we welcome the strong focus on them. However, these sites can only be unlocked by streamlining the planning process, along the lines we have suggested for small sites by granting a presumption in favour of development provided that affordable housing requirements are met.
“With the SME sector staring down the barrel of extinction, the need for these types of policies has never been greater and we would urge Labour to be radical in their approach. Overall we welcome the ambition, and should Labour form the next government we look forward to working with them to deliver this with the urgency required.”
Jason Lowes, partner in planning, Rapleys
“The Labour manifesto had more content on property and planning than might have been expected, however the practical ‘how’ is missing which, while not unusual in a manifesto, does mean that only time will tell as to whether Labour is able to deliver. For example, beyond the previous soundbites there was no further detail in how the grey belt will be classified or released, or how the 1.5m homes will be delivered when we are currently so far behind targets.
“Putting targets back into the NPPF is a positive step, but – as a measure on its own – this doesn’t deliver the housing the country needs. Private residential development already needs to provide the maximum amount of affordable housing it can viably deliver, how do they seek to go beyond this? 300 new planners may help with the staff shortages many local authorities are reporting, but at a national level this is less than one per local authority in England and Wales, and how quickly could these new planners be found?
“Even if they were able to start on day one, it will also take time to understand and roll out whatever NPPF changes are to be made. Cross boundary strategic planning and a focus on combined authority power sounds good but this is already happening in parts of the country, what is Labour going to do differently? Given that the whole manifesto is committed to change, the focus on relatively long-standing (and generally laudable) planning principles such as the presumption in favour of sustainable development, brownfield first, up-to-date local plans and golden rules risks sounding like version 2.0 of what’s already in place. So in summary, some nuggets of hope but many further questions raised.”
William Nichols, regional director, Lanpro
“Labour’s manifesto has set out some bold steps for how it aims to ‘kickstart economic growth’, promising to ‘transfer power out of Westminster’ by deepening devolution settlements for existing combined authorities while reviewing the governance arrangements for combined authorities to unblock decision making. It aims to ‘get Britain building again, by delivering jobs and 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament. It aims to ‘deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation.
“An important change that will be welcomed by the development industry is to immediately update the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) including the restoration or mandatory housing targets, and it has also said it will take tough action to ensure planning authorities have up-to-date local plans as well as strengthening the ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’; how this works in practice remains to be seen. Labour is committed to funding additional planning officers and resourcing planning departments with the staff they need.
“While Labour will continue to take a ‘brownfield first approach’, another welcome intervention is Labour’s commitment to take a more strategic approach to green belt designation while prioritising releasing lower quality ‘grey belt’ land alongside the creation of a set of ‘golden rules’ to ensure development benefits communities and nature.”
Ryan Etchells, chief commercial officer, Together
“A crackdown on ‘nimbyism’, commitment to build 1.5m new homes and plans to re-use brownfield land is all well and good. But it will be interesting to see whether the government of whichever colour will be able to deliver on the support SME housebuilders need to make these ambitions a reality. This will be key for planning reform and encouraging access to finance for development.
“We’re ahead of the curve on this. Last year, Together launched its first £150m development finance facility; purely to support the 40% who were calling for specialist help. There’s a clear need to address and solve the UK’s housing crisis, and unlocking development potential is at the forefront of achieving this.
“It’s great to see all parties emphasising the importance of this, and we look forward to seeing what the new government, whatever that may be, can offer the UK’s housing market. While we welcome the promise of partnership with British industry to kick-start growth – now is the time for action.”
Simon Green, head of business rates, Gerald Eve
“Labour’s manifesto has been underwhelming for Britain’s businesses. The Labour party “wants to replace the business rate system in a way that will level the playing field between the high street and online giants, better incentivise investment, tackle empty properties and support entrepreneurship”. But predictably, Labour is hazy on the details and there has been no explanation of how they plan to achieve this reform – whether by raising revenue via an online sales tax, cutting the Uniform Business Rate (UBR) multiplier for the retail sector and small businesses, or perhaps a combination of the two.
“Labour’s competition has done little better: Tuesday’s Conservative manifesto had very little to say about business rates reform, other than to announce worrying plans to reduce business rates bills for high street, leisure and hospitality businesses by increasing “the multiplier on distribution warehouses” – an already heavily taxed sector.
“The Liberal Democrats’ suggested plan to replace business rates with a Commercial Landowner Levy brings with it a whole host of different problems. For instance, currently the UK has no definitive register of land ownership and tracing overseas owners for example would likely be a complex and time-consuming process. It would also be difficult to arrive at fair values where there is no reliable pool of evidence.
“At 54.6%, our multiplier (i.e. the property tax rate) is amongst the highest of comparable property taxes in the Western world. Britain’s business rates system must be overhauled, not patched up with sticking plasters, yet none of the main parties have really addressed the fundamental issues with the system or suggested a realistic alternative. Business rates must be made simpler and cheaper rather than being replaced completely or further complicated by differential tax rates and complex reliefs: this is the only way to help our businesses.
Colin Brown, head of planning and development, Carter Jonas
“The stand-out point of the Labour manifesto on housing is the proposal to restore mandatory housing targets, meaning that local authorities will have to deliver 300,000 new homes per annum, or 1.5m across the whole of the next parliament. While the total number of units over is lower than either the Liberal Democrats (1.9m) or Conservatives (1.6m) have proposed, what sets Labour apart is the clear statement that housebuilding numbers will be imposed. Taken together with other measures to try and ensure there is proper cross-boundary strategic planning, this offers hope that we will see an uptick in new homes being built.”
