Harder to be an SME than five years ago – State of Play report

It is harder to be an SME housebuilder today than five years ago, according to two thirds of small housebuilding businesses responding to the latest State of Play report, published today (December 2).

The 2024/25 edition of the report, produced by the Home Builders Federation (HBF), Close Brothers Property Finance and Travis Perkins, reveals that delays to the planning process, the Conservative government’s anti-development approach to housing and planning policy and difficult economic conditions have made the past half decade especially challenging for SMEs.

For the fifth consecutive year of the report, planning is the largest barrier to delivery for smaller housebuilders, with 94% of respondents citing delays in the system and 90% under-resourced local authority planning departments as major obstacles.

Now in third position in the survey is “Local and/or political opposition to new development”- a big block for 78% of respondents, up from 69% in the previous report.

Other top hurdles to SMEs building more homes include biodiversity net gain (BNG) legislation at 90% of survey participants, mainly due to delays in obtaining agreement over schemes. BNG regulations were implemented earlier this year.

And 80% of respondents point to obtaining suitable offers for section …