To radically change the housing landscape, we need to radically change policy

Another day, another consultation. The government has launched its new (revised!) Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill: reforms to national planning policy. Huzzah! Unfortunately, it’s fallen flat on its face, because despite the need for policy to be more radical, it makes housebuilding just that bit harder.

You don’t need to be an economist to understand the problem underlying the housing crisis. It’s simple – demand outstrips supply.

The proposed revisions in the current consultation simply do not motivate councils and developers to build the homes we desperately need. In fact, under this iteration, LPAs do not need to continually demonstrate a deliverable five-year housing land supply. In sum, development will always be behind the curve. Consequently, despite the consultation being less than a month old we are already seeing councils like South Staffordshire Council use this to delay and change their housing plans.

If the government truly wants to radically transform the housing landscape, it needs to introduce radical new policy to help build the homes we need.

In WW1, the government led the charge to change the housing landscape and ‘create homes fit for heroes’, introducing the Addison Act to support the building of 500,000 houses within five years.

At the time, the policy was seen as radical and it continues to be viewed as such, as it did transform the landscape. If it really wants to address one of the biggest issues of our generation, this government, too, needs to take drastic steps to build the million homes we need to get us back on track!

The NPPF consultation also seeks to strengthen the green belt and pander to the NIMBYs, sacrificing progress at the altar of political ambition. Yet green belts are choking our cities, not just in London but Newcastle, Nottingham, Manchester and Bristol. They aren’t just preventing the building of homes, they are pushing up the cost of land.

What’s more, councils such as South Stafford, Mole Valley and Greater Manchester are using this consultation to amend their local plans; asking the planning inspector to remove all green belt sites – and thereby reducing much-needed homes for thriving towns and neighbouring cities.

As they stand, the proposals will inevitably have an adverse impact on housing supply. The National Housing Federation reports that 340,000 new homes need to be built each year, of which 145,000 should be affordable. Despite the Conservatives’ pledge to “continue to increase the number of homes being built”, just 216,000 new homes were delivered in 2020/21.

With a recession looming, surely it’s time to introduce a radical infrastructure programme to stimulate fiscal growth? Building much-needed homes by adopting a modern day Addison Act would deliver two million homes over the next five years. This would also serve to rejuvenate our education and skills programme, providing meaningful employment pathways that benefit the UK long term – and supporting the government’s own ambitions to level up. Why waste another opportunity to transform the landscape of this country?