HBF welcomes Labour’s commitments on planning and calls on Government to create a pro-development policy environment

Following the Labour Party’s General Election win, the Home Builders Federation (HBF) has reaffirmed its commitment to working with the new Government to address challenges threatening housing supply and support home builders to deliver much-needed housing.

In the lead up to the election, HBF released a housing blueprint for the next government, detailing measures it believes are crucial to tackling decreasing housing supply and addressing existing barriers to home builders delivering much-needed homes, including:

• calls for a new, targeted first-time buyer scheme, the expansion of green mortgages and the abolishment of stamp duty for the purchase of homes with an A or B EPC.
• finding a resolution to nutrient neutrality - including calls to bring forward legislation to unblock 160,000 homes currently on hold due to Natural England’s disproportionate mitigation measures.
• reinstating mandatory housing targets and the Five-Year Housing Land Supply,
• reform of the Standard Method of Housing Need
• ringfencing planning application fees for planning purposes
• acceleration of the implementation of National Development Management policies.
• developing a roadmap for the talent pipeline needed to deliver low-carbon, sustainable housing

On news of Labour’s win, Neil Jefferson, Chief Executive of the Home Builders Federation, said: “We look forward to engaging with the new Government on how we deliver its very welcome ambitions for housing delivery. Recent years have seen sharp falls in both the number of homes being built and the planning permissions being granted and there are some major barriers that need to be removed if we are to meet the challenge.

“We welcome the Government’s commitments on planning. The recent weakening of the planning system and the lack of capacity in local authority planning departments are the current biggest constraint on delivery.

“We also need to see effective support for first-time buyers to address the lack of affordable mortgage finance, and workable solutions to the nutrients issue that is holding up around 160,000 homes.

“If Government can create a pro-development policy environment the industry stands ready to deliver.

“Building the homes the country needs will address the social issues our housing crisis is creating, provide young people with access to decent housing, whilst creating tens of thousands of jobs and boosting investment in communities in every area of the country.”

HBF members can view the Labour party’s housing policy proposals as part of our general election engagement toolkit.