challenges and success from the year
The UK built environment has faced significant challenges and successes in 2024, particularly in the wake of the general election results. The new Labour government has emphasised its commitment to delivering affordable housing and bolstering economic development; however, questions remain regarding the implementability of Kier Starmers’ milestones, particularly the ambitious housebuilding target set for the next few years.
The government's current policy focus on increasing housing supply is commendable, yet the realities of planning permissions, infrastructure investment, and labour shortages pose substantial hurdles. Local authorities struggle to balance community needs with rapid development initiatives, which often leads to delays in planning applications. Additionally, the rising costs of materials and labour, as well as inflationary pressures and high interest rates, have further dampened the housing market, frustrating efforts to meet housing targets.
Overall, housebuilding in 2024 has slowed down further, as noted in the Savill’s 2024 Q2 survey.
However, despite these challenges, there have been some new initiatives that may go some way towards increasing the supply of housing. Lloyds and Barratt have teamed up with the UK government to deliver housing sites. The Made Partnership signalled it was willing to lead development of “multiple large scale residential led developments from 1,000 to more than 10,000 homes”. This could potentially be a vehicle to help deliver the shortlist of appropriate sites the task force led by Sir Michael Lyons.
The £500m boost in the autumn budget to the Affordable Homes Programme in 2025-26, and long term rent certainty, could help unlock delivery of development sites where the lack of funding for affordable homes has caused market led development sites to stall.
The PMs speech on the Plan for Change earlier this month promised, amongst many things, to reform planning rules to fast track 150 planning decisions on major infrastructure by the end of the parliament, and a new Planning Policy Framework by the end of 2024, in the hope that this will deliver a step change in the investment needed in housing and associated infrastructure.
Ultimately, while the government’s policies hold promise for advancing the housing agenda, the deliverability of these aspirations remains contingent on addressing systemic barriers within the built environment. Stakeholders will need to be willing to engage robustly to realise these milestones for the vision for sustainable, affordable housing becomes a reality.
This can’t come soon enough for the families of 150,000 children living in temporary accomodation, and the increasing numbers of people unable to buy a home of their own.