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423,000 homes with planning permission waiting to be built
More than 423,000 homes have been granted planning permission but are yet to be built, the Local Government Association (LGA) has claimed.
Research carried out by construction analysts Glenigan on behalf of the LGA shows the backlog in unbuilt homes has surged 16% in the past year.
There were 365,146 undeveloped permissioned units across England and Wales in 2015/16, rising to 423,544 in 2016/17.
Developers are also taking longer to build homes, with the average gap between planning approval and completion now 40 months – eight months longer than in 2013/14.
Councils should be given greater powers to take action on permissioned land which goes undeveloped, the LGA said.
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That could mean making it easier for local authorities to use compulsory purchase orders on sites left unbuilt, or the right to charge developers council tax for unbuilt homes once original planning permission expires.
Martin Tett, housing spokesperson for the LGA and leader of Buckinghamshire County Council, said: “These figures prove that the planning system is not a barrier to housebuilding. In fact the opposite is true.
“In the past year, councils and their communities granted twice as many planning permissions as the number of new homes that were completed.
“No one can live in a planning permission. Councils need greater powers to act where housebuilding has stalled.”
LGA analysis previously found that councils approve nine in 10 planning applications, approving 321,202 new homes in 2016/17, up from 204,989 the previous year.
The government is currently working on a review into why planning permissions are not being used.
