Introduce sanctions if developers fail to build within certain time frame of securing planning permission, says think tank

The Government should explore the introduction of new laws to force developers to build within a certain time frame of securing planning permission, or face sanctions, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has suggested.

The call comes after IPPR research found that developers have secured planning permission for more than 1.4 million homes since 2007 but have not gone on to build them.

“Common reasons for this include developers wanting to increase the land’s value before selling it on and land banking to slow building rates and maintain high house prices,” the IPPR claimed.

In its latest report, Strategic planning for green prosperity, the think tank also recommends:

• creating a new Cabinet Office team to produce a national spatial strategy to oversee land use, and
• tackling “blockers” to development at source by ensuring monitoring and enforcement is appropriately resourced.

The IPPR said that “while many blame the planning system, significant non-planning related barriers exist in the delivery of house building, such as developers slowing their build rates or securing permission and then not building”.

It added that the failure to join up key infrastructure projects for development was also slowing the delivery of new homes and economic growth.  

The IPPR argued that “rather than removing planning regulations, and succumbing to the ‘builders v blockers’ debate”, the planning system should be strengthened, “to support the delivery of house building while also supporting the government’s missions to restore nature, generate clean energy and build other crucial infrastructure”.

Part of this will involve increasing capacity and funding for local planning teams, who have been increasingly strained since the austerity years, it argued. “But it also involves national and regional strategic policies.”

Dr Maya Singer Hobbs, senior research fellow at IPPR and author of the report, said: “The Government doesn’t need to rip up the planning system to build 1.5 million new homes. Many of the blockers to housing and infrastructure delivery are not planning related. Reasons include water shortages, private developers slowing delivery to maintain profits, and a lack of strategic oversight of large infrastructure projects.  

“Market driven house-building is broken, and won’t deliver the 1.5 million homes the government has promised.”

Dr Singer Hobbs added: “Years of deregulation and cuts to organisations like the Environment Agency means the planning system now operates as the last bastion of defence against bad design, nature degradation, pollution and over extraction of our waterways. We must support local, regional and national planners to do their job.

“This is not about pitting NIMBYs against YIMBYs, it is about ensuring the government achieves its ambitious targets whilst also maintaining local support and high quality.”

Cllr Adam Hug, Housing spokesperson for the LGA, said: “This report puts a spotlight on one of the key issues the LGA has long-called for Government action on – the need to tackle slow build-out rates from some developers.

“In order to deliver the homes we need, Government must work with councils and the housebuilding industry to ensure there is a suitable pipeline of sustainable sites, which once allocated in a Local Plan and / or given planning permission, are indeed built out. Councils approve 9 in 10 planning applications, but people cannot and do not live in planning permissions. Councils must be given greater powers to ensure prompt build out of sites with planning permission, also should be given the support to ensure they have an up-to-date local plan so they can give certainty to residents and housebuilders.”

Cllr Hug added: “Planning is about creating communities linked with the right economic activity and public services, whilst conserving and enhancing the natural and local environment generating a sense of place, culture and local identity. Developments require more than just houses to create thriving, attractive and desirable places and communities in which to live, and often it is the accompanying local and national infrastructure, to be delivered alongside new homes, which is of primary concern for residents.”