Housing: Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer

Ms Nusrat Ghani: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will review the five-year plan to assume that homes will be built within five years to remove incentives for developers to delay development and speculate on land.

Christopher Pincher: The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that local planning authorities should identify and update annually a supply of specific deliverable sites sufficient to provide a minimum of five years' worth of housing against their housing requirement set out in adopted strategic policies. The Government wants to see homes built faster and expects house builders to build out as soon as possible once planning permission is granted. Where build-out is delayed, it is for councils and developers to work closely together to overcome any barriers. To support them, this Government is looking at strengthening the tools available to local authorities to encourage faster build out rates.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2021-09-14/49185 

Government Will Act On Build Out Rates

Robert Jenrick has confirmed that the government intends to bring in measures designed to force housebuilders to build out sites more quickly, despite admitting that there was no evidence of “land-banking”. Speaking to the Home Builders’ Federation’s annual policy conference, the housing secretary said he was planning to act because there remained a “public perception” of landbanking, despite two government-commissioned investigations having found no evidence of it happening. The announcement comes in the wake of the confirmation that the government will press ahead with controversial planning reforms in the face of significant backbench disquiet over the measures. Read more on Housing Today.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/government-will-act-on-build-out-rates-jenrick-confirms/5112044.article