Labour’s first year – is the government delivering on solving the housing crisis?

Image: Keir Starmer at PMQ’s - House of Commons Flickr

Labour’s first year – is the government delivering on solving the housing crisis?

Labour marked its first year in office on July 4th against a background of rebellious backbench MPs, a weeping Chancellor of the Exchequer and some of the lowest poll ratings for Sir Keir Starmer ever recorded for a Prime Minister.

Ultimately, however, governments are judged on results after a full term in office and Labour still has around four years before it must face the electorate again, barring unforeseen events.

One of the issues on which this Government will be judged is how well it has met its promise to tackle the housing crisis and deliver 1.5 million new homes over the five years of the Parliament.

To help it achieve that target it has drawn up the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, currently making its way through Parliament. Over 100 amendments have been tabled by members of the House of Lords, demonstrating that despite broad support in the Commons, the Bill still faces significant challenges.

Almost everyone agrees that streamlining the planning process, to speed up the delivery of new homes and critical infrastructure, is essential to meet the housing need and deliver economic growth.

But doing so in a way that preserves the countryside and protects nature has created significant disagreement, despite undertakings from the Government, supported by the chair of Natural England, Tony Juniper, that we can have both more building and more wildlife.

Not everyone in the conservation movement accepts that assessment and there are deep misgivings in some areas about the risk of, as the critics see it, watering down protections for threatened species and vulnerable habitats in order to start building.

Among the concerns are the way the Planning and Infrastructure Bill could reduce the requirements of the Biodiversity Net Gain rules which currently require housebuilders to improve biodiversity by a minimum of 10%.

And Just last week (July 8) the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – the department headed up by Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister - had to issue a rebuttal to a newspaper report that claimed the Planning and Infrastructure Bill would deny local people the opportunity to comment on plans in their area and the ability to object if they felt it necessary, saying it was “not the case.”

“The reforms being brought forward are designed to help speed up local planning decision making, maximise the use of professional skills and judgement of trained planners, and focus the time of elected councillors on the most significant or controversial applications,” the statement said.

It further insisted that the Bill “will ensure that vital protections for the environment remain in place…(so) we can deliver more nature, not less.”

Engagement and consultation are the bedrock of the democratic planning process in Britain and the Government would be foolish to try to deny people the opportunity to see and respond to development plans for their area – or to ignore the concerns of conservation bodies.

Shutting down discussion or hoping that you can somehow slip proposals under the radar and avoid confrontation rarely works. And when it does happen it breeds distrust. You can never pull the same trick twice.

To help the Government deliver its new homes and much-needed infrastructure targets, developers should engage early with their communities and stakeholders, seek input from those affected where appropriate and deliver schemes that are seen to meet needs.

But developers need support too. One of the concerns of housebuilders who are doing their best to step up the provision of new homes in a challenging economic environment is the lack of any support for buyers, particularly first-time buyers.

The last Government’s Help to Buy scheme, scrapped entirely in March 2023, helped with the purchase of around 30% of all newly built homes when it was in operation. Housebuilders are now concerned that while they are being pressed to step up construction, the cost-of-living crisis and high interest rates mean the housing market has stalled.

This Government will be judged on how it has performed on a wide range of measures and – one year in – it clearly has ground to make up. 

On housing and infrastructure it needs to:

• Make good on its pledge to step up development, while providing measurable evidence of a boost for wildlife and the environment.

• Unstick a largely stagnant housing market, so that the new homes it says are needed find ready buyers or tenants who can afford them.

• Ensure that streamlining the planning process does not disenfranchise local people – while removing the barriers that currently delay much-needed projects.

Building more homes and upgrading our roads, rail links and energy generation and distribution capacity has broad support across the political spectrum. But when the general becomes the specific – yes to more homes, but not near to where I already live – challenges mount.

That’s where engagement and consultation come in, explaining plans, answering questions and working to overcome objections. Stakeholders must be taken on a journey.

Grace Gladding, KOR Communications’ Senior Consultant, Public Affairs, said: “While it may be too early to tell how much progress has been made on Labour's pledge to deliver 1.5 million new homes after just 12 months in office, the government's landmark Planning and Infrastructure Bill - intended to reform the planning system and get Britain building - has sparked a national conversation on how people wish to engage with the planning system and the relationship between the environment, infrastructure, and development. 

With this in mind, it is more important than ever for landowners and developers to prioritise strategic communications and engagement. Effective engagement can no longer be a 'nice to have' - and for our clients, it's not - it is considered a priority, because they want to get it right. Listening, engaging and taking the community on the journey, from inception to completion, is at the core of meaningful engagement we support our clients deliver." 

The Government needs to set out the policy on house building and infrastructure. But the new homes, roads, rail links, renewable energy schemes and other projects will be delivered by landowners and developers.

As Grace says, it is their job to engage and communicate their plans - and the majority are rising to the challenge - to make the process as smooth as possible. That’s not to help the Government, but to deliver for the nation.