The government’s target of building 1.5 million homes in this parliament are ‘unachievable’, according to the findings of a major national survey of planning authorities in England.
The 2025 National Planning Barometer, which was undertaken by strategic communications and advocacy consultancy SEC Newgate and launched at UKREiiF, surveyed 485 planning committee members about Labour’s planning reforms and whether they feel they will have a material impact on the housing crisis.
Some 76% of survey respondents said the government’s targets are unachievable and 92% of councillors said the housing crisis had either persisted of worsened in their area.
However, just 6% of councillors view the planning system as the root cause of the housing shortage, citing instead conflicting priorities between key actors in the planning system and negative market conditions as the key causes of the failure to build enough homes.
A third of councillors referred to the construction sector’s skills shortage as the primary reason behind their lack of confidence in meeting the government’s ambitious target, with a fifth pointing to the negative impact of perceived developer land-banking.
Perry Miller, head of advocacy local at SEC Newgate, said: “The National Planning Barometer 2025 reveals a significant disconnect between national policy ambitions and the realities faced by those on the front lines of planning and delivery. While the government has set an ambitious target of delivering 1.5 million homes by the end of the current parliament, councillors are telling us that these goals are not translating into delivery at local level and that simply setting targets is insufficient.
“Councillors are very clear that addressing the root causes of the failure to build enough homes is essential if the housing crisis is to be meaningfully addressed and the government is to achieve its ambitious housing target.”
