North Somerset Council criticised in new report on housing crisis
The construction industry says housebuilders aren't able to match demand because of barriers such as outdated planning systems
A cross-industry paper is criticising nearly 60 local authorities including North Somerset Council, for a lack of action to tackle the housing crisis.
The report singles out dozens for suspending their development plans for new homes, further delaying government targets and taking us further away from building the 4.3 million homes needed in England to meet demand.
As well as criticising councils like North Somerset, the report states the current planning system is “broken” and government approach is “scattergun” – with all parties promising reform but none providing comprehensive plans.
It also states the sector faces uncertainty with there having been 15 housing ministers since 2010.
The ‘Solving the UK’s Housing Shortage’ white paper, published by digital marketplace for specialist property finance, Brickflow, has been developed with input from 12 industry leaders from across the private sector, including Knight Frank and PwC.
The white paper outlines multiple challenges facing the sector including planning, land supply, funding, development incentives, supply chain, environmental demands and affordability – and identifies a framework of solutions that address those challenges.
The statistics reveal 4.75 million homes are needed across the UK (4.3 million in England), only 0.2% of land in England is vacant to build on and since July this year, 58 local authorities have suspended their development plans.
The group behind the white paper says such stats illustrate why a framework is so vital to getting Britain building again.
Housebuilders have not been able to match demand or (now-scrapped) government targets, due to barriers including: outdated planning processes, a shortage of land and funding, environmental issues and more recently, end-buyer affordability.
The report has analysed hundreds of pages of government policy related to housebuilding, and garnered opinion from those on the coalface of the process and concludes that the ‘planning system is broken’ and the government’s current approach is ‘scattergun’.
It points out that the current government has had 15 different housing ministers since 2010 and lays bare both their successes and ‘abysmal failures,’ whilst providing action-oriented recommendations that cut through the rhetoric.
All the major political parties have made promises around reforming the sector at recent party conferences including Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to build the ‘next generation’ of new towns and 1.5 million new homes as part of ‘a decade of renewal under Labour’.
Both North Somerset Council and the government have responded to requests for comment from Greatest Hits Radio.
A North Somerset Council spokesperson said: “We’ve been working hard to progress our new local plan and had hoped that the Government’s revisions to national planning policies, promised in the spring and then again in September, would have been published by now so we could make sure we’re working in full accordance with them.
"We’ve pressed on regardless of these Government delays and following approval by our Executive last week (Wednesday 18 October), our final draft plan will be published next month for a final stage of public consultation...
"Our Local Plan 2039 aims to deliver more affordable homes, create sustainable, accessible and attractive places and give more opportunities for local jobs near to where people live in North Somerset. It has been shaped by the response received to three phases of consultation between 2020 and 2022."
More information is available on the North Somerset Local Plan here.
Meanwhile a spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: “We are on track to in meet our manifesto commitment of building one million homes over this Parliament.
“We have announced £10 billion investment to increase housing supply since the start of this Parliament and our long-term housing plan will allow us to go further and build the homes we need.”