The government has announced that councils will be given new powers to speed up the delivery of new homes.
As part of this, housebuilders will be required to commit to delivery timeframes before being granted planning permission, designed to ensure they deliver on their commitments and do not let progress on sites stall.
A new ‘Delayed Homes Penalty’ is also set to be introduced, which the government says is aimed at deterring developers from consistently failing to build out consented sites and to stop them “deliberately sitting on vital land”.
The penalty could see housebuilders fined thousands for each unbuilt home which would be paid directly to local planning authorities. The government says that the penalty would be used as a last resort measure and could come into effect when a developer has committed to a build-out schedule and falls 10% or more behind it without good reason.
The new plans also could see housebuilders who are deemed to be sitting on vital land without building the promised homes have their sites acquired by councils where there is a case in the public interest, and could also be stripped of future planning permissions.
Deputy prime minister and housing secretary, Angela Rayner, said: “This government has taken radical steps to overhaul the planning system to get Britain building again after years of inaction. In the name of delivering security for working people, we are backing the builders not the blockers. Now it’s time for developers to roll up their sleeves and play their part.”
“We’re going even further to get the homes we need. No more sites with planning permission gathering dust for decades while a generation struggles to get on the housing ladder. Through our Plan for Change, we will deliver 1.5 million homes, fix the housing crisis and make the dream of home ownership a reality for working people.”
The government says that it is also testing a new requirement for large sites to be mixed tenure by default, which it says would see more homes, including affordable homes delivered faster. It says that large developments that produce over 2,000 homes can take at least 14 years to deliver, whereas when more than 40% of homes are affordable, build-out is twice as fast.
Housing spokesperson for the Local Government Association, Cllr Adam Hug, said: “We are pleased the government has acted on the LGA’s call for it to be easier for councils to penalise developers and acquire stalled housing sites or sites which have not been built out to timescales contractually agreed, ideally with the recovery being made at pre-planning gain prices.”
“Local government shares ambitions to boost housebuilding and work hard with communities and developers to deliver new sites. Too often they are frustrated when developers do not build the homes they have approved. While intervention of this sort is a last resort, this move is crucial to help ensure meaningful build out of sites.”
“The ability to apply a ’Delayed Homes Penalty’ is a power that councils have been asking for and means that local taxpayers are not missing out on lost income due to slow developers, but it must be set at a level that incentivises build-out.”
“Private developers have a key role in solving our chronic housing shortage but they cannot build the homes needed each year on their own. Ahead of the Spending Review, we have also set out the measures needed to empower councils to also be able to build more affordable, good quality homes quickly and at scale.”
