Last week the Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary, Angela Rayner, unveiled planning reforms to make the system ‘simpler, fairer and more cost-effective.’
She announced sweeping planning reforms to help smaller housebuilders deliver more homes as part of the Government’s drive to build 1.5 million new homes by 2029-30 saying that ‘decades of unfair treatment’ have seen SME builders’ market share shrink from 40% in the 1980s to just a fraction of that today stating “smaller housebuilders must be the bedrock of our Plan for Change to build 1.5 million homes and it’s time to level the playing field.” Rayner claims the current system makes it “far too difficult for smaller builders to get spades in the ground” – with a small site of 10 homes jumping through the same planning hoops as developments of 100 or more homes. “We are taking urgent action to make the system simpler, fairer and more cost-effective, so smaller housebuilders can play a crucial role in our journey to get Britain building,” Rayner told a Government briefing.
The reforms include moving planning decisions for developments of up to nine homes from councillors to expert planning officers, with eased biodiversity requirements. A new ‘medium site’ category for developments of 10 to 49 homes will also have simplified rules, reduced costs, and an exemption from the Building Safety Levy. Jeremy Gray, Head of External Affairs at The Federation of Master Builders, described it as “a big change for the planning system” that acknowledges the hardships faced by SME builders.
Crucially though it’s not just about planning; Rayner is also backing the reforms with £100 million in SME Accelerator Loans, part of the £700 million extension to the Home Building Fund. An additional £10 million will help councils fund specialists to speed up environmental assessments. Under Rayner’s plans, Homes England will release more land exclusively to SMEs, while a new National Housing Delivery Fund will support long-term finance options. The Government is also piloting a Small Sites Aggregator in Bristol, Sheffield and Lewisham – a scheme designed to unlock sites that would otherwise remain undeveloped while attracting private investment for social rent homes.
Jon Di Stefano, Chief Executive of housebuilder Greencore Homes, believes the changes will have “a transformative effect for housing delivery, not just in terms of volume but quality and sustainability too”.
