LGA report overlooks the real problem with planning
The House Builders Association (HBA) responds to a housing reportpublished by the Local Government Association today, saying it shows a lack of sensitivity to the wider house building industry.
With SME developers still recovering from the recession, the HBA must express some surprise at the Local Government Association’s (LGA) lack of sensitivity to the wider house building industry in its research on planning permissions.
The LGA’s supporting figures do not include any sites of fewer than ten units, unless high value. By excluding the contribution of SMEs, the LGA proof that the planning system is not a barrier to house building cannot possibly be conclusive.
Rico Wojtulewicz, policy advisor of the HBA, said: “Since the recession, the HBA has maintained that SMEs have been squeezed out of the marketplace by a convoluted and onerous planning system. Larger sites, the mainstay of the LGA research, have been the preferred option for development. Small site permissions, those with the highest turnaround, have been mostly overlooked whilst the cost to develop them has spiralled.
He continued: “When SMEs built 60 per cent of our homes, output was at its highest. Now at only 30 per cent, output is at its lowest in decades, with prices spiralling out of control. Not all developers are equal or have the same business models. It’s important that politicians and local authorities recognise this fact.
Wojtulewicz concluded, “The LGA is right to highlight the skills shortage as a house building crisis, as well as searching for solutions to increase output. However, it should consider whether that skills shortage is affecting local authority planning departments to the point of misunderstanding policy or stalling smaller developments. With small sites and infill taking a back seat to larger developments, perhaps these LGA statistics can help local authorities conclude what the industry already knows: the lack of SME support is the real reason for low output and that the planning system works better for big business.”
