New Homes Accelerator — what do government plans mean for housebuilders?

The Government’s fast start in its self-proclaimed mission to solve the housing crisis continues with the Ministry for Communities, Housing and Local Government’s announcement of the New Homes Accelerator (NHA), an initiative designed to unblock stalled sites and deliver new homes.

MCHLG suggests that there may be more than 200 sites with outline or detailed planning permission where work has been delayed, with the potential to deliver up to 300,000 homes.

As part of the NHA, a new experienced team from the department will work across government and with local councils. In launching the initiative, Angela Raynor said:

“For far too long the delivery of tens of thousands of new homes has been held back by a failure to make sure the development system is working as it should.

“This government has a moral obligation to do everything within our power to build the homes that people desperately need and we won’t hesitate to intervene where we need to.

“Our New Homes Accelerator will quickly identify blockages, fix problems and support local authorities and developers to get shovels in the ground.”

Sentiments that will no doubt be welcomed by the development industry and those across the country struggling to afford a home of their own, but is the NHA a game-changer in terms of solving the housing crisis or another false dawn?

Well, it is proposed that the NHA will focus on selected large-scale housing developments that are encountering significant delays or obstacles; and will leverage government resources to:

• identify and address specific thematic issues causing delays, such as coordination failures, regulatory obstacles, and local authority capacity constraints
  
  
• deploy expert teams to provide on-the-ground support to local authorities, offering planning and enabling assistance to expedite the development process
  
  
• utilise its resources to unblock and accelerate delivery on sites that are facing delays or not progressing as quickly as they could be
  
  
• inform future reforms to housing and planning policy, where policy barriers to rapid housing delivery are identified.

Support would come in various forms, such as strategic advice, planning assistance or facilitation with stakeholders.

These objectives and the suggestion of practical solutions are to be welcomed. The difficulty is that it’s easy to identify blockers to housing delivery, but doing anything about them usually requires legislation (see nutrient neutrality) or money (see local authority capacity constraints), and the Government doesn’t have much of either. 

What it does have on its side is political capital, a large parliamentary majority, and the broad support of an increasingly frustrated development industry. Importantly, the NHA also has the backing of the Treasury, the initiative having first been announced in Rachel Reeves’ first address to parliament in July.

However, it won’t be plain sailing and the removal of some of the identified blockers is likely to eat into some of that political capital. In particular, if Labour is forced to compromise on s106 infrastructure requirements; affordable housing; or environmental protections in order to unlock sites where viability is stalling development, then it might not be long before there are rumblings amongst its backbenches.

Even if the planning issues are tackled effectively, there is the question of who is going to build all of these homes once the sites are unlocked. Perhaps one solution is for Councils to return to building houses themselves, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if Angela Raynor favoured a return to Council housebuilding. But this takes money and specialist resource, and local authorities are presently short of both.

Call for sites

MHCLG has launched a call for large-scale housing development sites, particularly those with consent for 1500+ dwellings, with significant delays or obstacles preventing their progression. Submissions can be made through an online application form:

https://consult.communities.gov.uk/housing/new-homes-accelerator-call-for-sites/

The application window closes on Thursday 31 October 2024

Conclusion

The NHA could represent a significant step forward in addressing some of the most pressing issues in the housing sector, offering practical solutions to speeding up delivery on a focussed selection of sites. However, it is critical that it is adequately resourced and underpinned by the necessary changes in planning legislation and policy.

Perhaps most important of all, is that the Government has the staying power that previous administrations have lacked and maintains its resolve in the face of the political flak that is likely to come its way from anti-development factions, including some within its own party.