A Year of Change: A look at Labour’s First Year in Government – Planning for 1.5m new homes

The first anniversary of Labour’s General Election victory means that there are just four years left for the Government to achieve its target of delivering 1.5m new homes.  

From the outset, the aim was widely considered to be an admirable one, but not necessarily an achievable one. That’s not for a lack of trying. We have seen the Government make planning reform a central focus of their first year in power and now the policies just have to bear fruit, to use the words of Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook.  

Almost immediately after the General Election, Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner and her team set about putting into action many of the party’s manifesto pledges, showing a commitment to delivering more housing and infrastructure projects. It was only a matter of days after the election that Rayner used her existing powers to recover appeals for two data centres which had been rejected locally.  

This is a theme which has continued throughout the past year, with Ministers using their powers to intervene in the planning system. Unlike previous governments, they have overwhelmingly granted approval for these schemes, which span housing and infrastructure, including data centres and solar farms –  so far just two schemes have been rejected under these powers.  

It was also in July last year that the Government published the new draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), setting out plans for reforms to the planning system, including key changes such as the new classification of ‘grey belt’ land and the reintroduction of mandatory – and higher – housing targets. While previous governments had often taken many months to complete this process – the December 2023 version was consulted on between December 2022 and March 2023 – the new Labour Government certainly hit the ground running, publishing the final version in December.  

The ’grey belt’ policy is perhaps the policy change which has so far borne the most results in the short term, with a number of schemes having already been approved on this type of land – not bad for a policy that has only been in effect for seven months. Schemes for hundreds of homes each, in Essex, Surrey and the West Midlands have been given the green light, as well as other types of vital infrastructure, including one of Europe’s biggest data centres.  

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill, currently progressing through the Lords, is also designed to remove obstacles from the planning process. The legislation itself is quite thin, giving the Government the ability to make changes further down the line. Key measures include changes to the way decisions are made by local planning authorities, new measures to mitigate the impact of development on nature (no more ‘bat tunnels’) and reforms to speed up the acquisition of land through Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs).  

Talk to anyone in the sector and they will point to two main obstacles affecting their ability to deliver homes on time and on budget – viability and Gateway 2 (the Building Safety Regulator). While the first is somewhat more complex, the Government seems to finally have understood that the Gateway 2 process, (rightfully) introduced in response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s findings, is too lengthy a process, sometimes delaying projects for months on end. Just last month, they announced new reforms aimed at tackling these issues by introducing measures such as a new Fast Track Process, as well as appointing new leadership and the recruitment of additional staff. Let’s hope these measures have the desired effect.  

For all the positive sounds from the Government, the truth is that there is a mountain to climb when it comes to housing delivery. The statistics tell the story themselves, with the latest figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government showing that planning application submissions fell to a record low of 335,801 in 2023/24. There are however some green shoots, with statistics showing that the number of applications submitted in the first quarter of this year was up by 6% compared to the same period last year. We’ll be awaiting statistics for the second quarter with bated breath.  

Looking forward, there is one major policy that we are eagerly awaiting further information about – New Towns. The expert Taskforce assembled a year ago is set to report back on potential locations for these developments of at least 10,000 homes each sometime this month. Earlier this year, the Prime Minister confirmed that work on the New Towns would begin before the end of this parliament, meaning that the new homes are unlikely to contribute to that 1.5m figure.  

LCA’s Insight Team will of course be keeping a close eye on what the next few years have in store. If you would like to discuss anything further, get in touch using insight@thisislca.com.