The government are launching a team dedicated to helping new housing developments. 

The New Homes Accelerator team are charged with ‘overcoming planning red tape’, to allow construction to begin on these new homes development sites.

I shared my thoughts on this with Property Wire:

“Developments stall for a myriad of complex reasons and it is difficult to see how these will be overcome, especially where the environment is concerned.

Protected species are covered under separate legislation, requiring licenses and work to be carried out at specific times of the year, while the proposed additional mitigation around nutrient neutrality is still ambiguous.

We need to see greater clarity on how the planning regime and other statutory regimes will work in tandem, and it’s not clear how parachuting in a team of planners will rectify this challenge.

Another key issue is the ability for Registered Providers (RP) to take on the affordable housing on development sites. Section 106 agreements will often require developers to transfer the affordable units to a RP before further building work or occupation can happen and this currently isn’t feasible for providers who are focusing resources on current stock maintenance and operation.

A final challenge is sufficient infrastructure provision, sites are increasingly stalling due to inadequate water supply or grid capacity, these issues need to be looked at holistically and across Government departments.

While I welcome the government’s commitment to unlocking sites that are stalling post planning, the solution is by no means simple and it won’t be possible to bypass other statues or legislation.”

You can read the full article here.