Government housing targets doomed if planning permission tracking doesn’t improve, HBF warns

Tracking of planning permissions must be improved or the government’s housing targets will not be met, the Home Builders Federation has warned.

A report from planning consultancy Lichfields has found the government will miss its housing targets unless 100,000 more planning permissions are granted for each of the next three years.

The report, which was commissioned by Land Promoters and Developers Federation and the HBF,  said “urgent action” needs to be taken to significantly increase the number of housing schemes granted approval if the government wants to achieve its aim of building 300,000 homes a year by the mid 2020s.

The research contradicts a recent statement from the Local Government Association (LGA) that said government data, which has recorded an annual rate of permissions of 300,000 to 400,000 in recent years, suggested developers had been land-banking consented sites.

But Lichfield’s study warned permissions that had lapsed, been re-planned or delayed had not been taken into account by the LGA.

Lichfield’s research found that around 520,000 houses each year need to be approved to ensure at least 300,000 homes a year are built. In 2019, MHCLG recorded just 372,000 permissions.

Now Andrew Whitaker, planning director at the HBF, has said the way housing permissions are monitored is “wholly unsatisfactory and does not provide a basis to make reasoned policy decisions”.

He said: “Local planning authorities should be under an obligation to prepare more transparent data that reflects what is actually happening and avoids double counting of replanned schemes and lapsed consents. 

“The results of the housing delivery test published by the government in January showed that, far from being complacent, local authorities should work more closely with developers to understand the detail of their housing pipeline of planning permissions. Without this robust assessment in place we will continue to fail to deliver the houses the country so desperately needs.” 

The report is the first stage of a three-part research study into the relationship between housing needs, planning permissions and building completions. Lichfields said it will be reporting back on the second and third stages of the work in due course.