“There is perhaps no real surprise that Labour won the General Election last week with a landslide, but it is still nevertheless a big relief. There is a feeling of optimism that we might just have a Labour Government who seems serious about tackling the housing crisis.
“The previous Government had a fairly adversarial relationship with the housebuilding industry, in part because of the anti-development caucus of the Conservative party, led by Villiers. She managed to wield a disproportionate amount of influence due to the Government stumbling from one crisis to the next and the need to shore up support from their own MPs. It’s almost as though Michael Gove and his colleagues were quite happy to undermine essential investment because they knew it would be another administration problem and it is now a real challenge for the new Government to arrest the decline.
“Over the weekend it was announced that Angela Rayner was appointed Secretary of State for Housing and Matthew Pennycook the Minister for Housing. The fact that such a senior politician has been appointed in the role speaks volumes about the importance being placed on housing, and in Matthew Pennycook we have a Minister who has held the same role in opposition since December 2021. This means he has already spent almost three times longer on the brief than the average duration of the last 16 (not a typo!) Conservative housing ministers. In a keynote speech this week the new Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said that she will get Britain building again. She reiterated Labour’s target for building 1.5m new homes over the next five years, teeing up measures including reform of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) by the end of the month which will reinstate mandatory targets amongst other policy objectives.
“If as a nation we’re to deliver 1.5m homes in a first term and deliver much needed industrial & logistics growth, a new NPPF is needed urgently, and it will require a very positive can-do-attitude from all stakeholders. It too often feels like the planning system is designed to minimise investment and outcomes and it is nearly always the case that SMEs suffer the most from the uncertainty and scarcity of consented land. I’m ever the optimist and I really hope that planning committees up and down the land will start to listen to their professional officers’ advice when planning applications are recommended for approval or pro-growth local plans are proposed to be progressed, After all Labour have, as Rachel Reeves said this week, been “elected on a mandate to get things done and to get Britain building again”.
“At Richborough we have been anticipating a significant and positive change for our industry for some time. Partly because we have been listening to and engaging with Labour in opposition and partly because it is manifestly obvious to anyone with an understanding of the planning system that it is completely broken, and the economic and social consequences are dire. Richborough has the team and pipeline of sites to respond rapidly with accelerated planning strategies.”
Please contact the team for a no obligation chat about the potential of your land: land@richborough.co.uk