You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Development plans stall nationwide as planning delays hit ‘critical point’
Housing associations are struggling to meet development targets as delays to the planning process have reached a “critical” point.
Trade bodies and social landlords across the country have told Inside Housing that planning delays are the biggest challenge facing development teams at the moment, with developers regularly having to wait more than a year to obtain planning permission.
The delays are taking place against a backdrop of rising build costs, meaning developments may no longer be viable by the time they are granted planning permission. Some housing associations are also facing challenges in meeting grant funding deadlines as a result of the delays.
Mike Shepherd, development director at Vivid, said roughly 100 of the homes in the association’s development programme are currently subject to planning delays.
“For Vivid, that’s annoying, that’s a challenge to try and meet our ongoing development aspirations… but when you look at Bargate, which is one of our development subsidiaries, they’re looking probably at 50% of their sites currently being caught in planning,” he said.
Mr Shepherd said Vivid has a number of homes caught up in the planning process which need to start on site by March 2023 in order to meet the deadline of Homes England’s strategic partnership programme. He said “a number of other players nationally” are in the same position.
“We bought sites maybe 18 months ago and they’re still currently going through planning, which hopefully intervention from Homes England might help us unlock, but otherwise we’re around looking for substitute sites and all sorts of other things, which just makes that challenge even harder,” he said.
Jonathan Corris, a partner at Devonshires, said: “The past nine months have been really bad from what I’m seeing with clients. I’ve got some schemes clients are working on where it took almost a year to get a planning application validated for no real reason.”
READ MORE
He said the delay in planning is leading to some social landlords questioning whether they can still go ahead with schemes, as soaring building costs mean some developments are no longer “desirable”.
All developers, including social landlords, have been badly hit in the past year by rising supply chain costs caused by a number of global events including the pandemic, Brexit and the blockage of the Suez Canal.
Craig Sparrow, development director at ClwydAlyn, said the Welsh housing association has also been affected by the dual problem of rising build costs and planning delays.
“The biggest thing costing us the most money is the delay in getting a planning approval for a project.
“That’s costing us a fortune and it’s becoming so critical to the point that it’s very difficult to plan your business plan, because the length of time it’s taking to get planning is extraordinary,” he said.
Andrew Whitaker, planning director at the Home Builders Federation, said: “All our members are saying it’s an absolute nightmare at the moment. Everywhere I go, every single meeting. Even just getting an application registered can be really difficult.”
He said SMEs were particularly affected by the delays as they can be “prevented from starting new sites when they complete existing ones”.
An anonymous survey of 12 development directors, carried out by PlaceShapers on its members, found that five respondents were building fewer homes due to planning delays.
One PlaceShaper member said their organisation had delivered 100 fewer homes due to delays, while three organisations said they have delivered between 25 and 75 fewer homes due to planning issues.
Of the 12 respondents, 11 said planning delays were costing them more money, with members also highlighting the effect that soaring supply chain costs are having on original tender prices.
All of the individuals Inside Housing spoke to raised lack of local authority resources as a major reason for the increased delays in planning, which have been exacerbated by a backlog that built up during COVID-19 lockdowns.
Claire Higgins, chief executive of Cross Keys Homes and vice-chair of PlaceShapers, said: “As a country we need to build more affordable homes. New homes need local authority planning consent.
“Unfortunately the imbalance between supply and demand is exacerbated by delays in obtaining such consents because of delays caused by a lack of suitably skilled resources within planning departments.”
Mr Whitaker said: “Local authorities are taking far too long – in some cases years – to process applications, causing a logjam in the pipeline and strangling supply and investment.”
Some housing associations are also having to contend with local issues that are causing huge delays to planning.
In Wales, for example, new targets over phosphate levels have effectively put an embargo on development in some parts of the country.
A similar issue has previously led to development being halted in Hampshire, where Vivid operates, and Mr Shepherd said the association is now facing similar difficulties in the New Forest area.
It comes more than a year after the government first introduced its Planning White Paper, which ministers said at the time would radically overhaul the planning process and speed up the amount of time it takes to get approval.
The proposals have been heavily criticised by some Conservative backbenchers and new housing secretary Michael Gove has said the plans will now be “reviewed”.
Ms Higgins said: “There is rightly a focus from government on reforming the planning system. As well as some of the more radical ideas, there needs to be an equal focus on getting the resourcing right in terms of people and skills within local authorities. That would mean more homes delivered and quicker.”
Sign up for our development and finance newsletter
Already have an account? Click here to manage your newsletters
