Planning not enough to help housing – HBF Policy Conference

The government has made impressive strides on planning reform but much more needs to be done to tackle the various other challenges the industry faces to delivering the homes the country needs, according to speakers at HBF’s Policy Conference.

At the conference in London, Neil Jefferson, HBF’s ceo, said the projections on housebuilding from the Office for Budget Responsibility, as announced in Wednesday’s Spring Statement, included “some heroic assumptions” but “we’ll take something from that”. However, “in order to achieve this growth, we need stimulus”.

Jefferson outlined the other issues suppressing housebuilding, including the absence of support for first time buyers, the section 106 crisis, uncertainty around the Future Homes Standard, building safety and the clarity needed on the costs of the Nature Restoration Fund, set to unlock sites blighted by nutrient neutrality demands.

Jefferson said the government had made some “progressive policy interventions and some solid decisions for the long term. But there are frustrations that [other] issues have not been dealt with. These are probably reducing capacity in the industry”.

Mark Aedy, chairman of EMEA & Asia at Moelis & Company, agreed that the Labour government was “only focused on the supply side. There needs …