Agents’ message to government - boost supply to end housing shortage

Agents’ body Propertymark wants more government action to boost housing supply - and it wants the views of the industry on the issue.

In December the Department for Levelling up Housing and Communities launched a consultation on its upcoming planning reforms. 

Propertymark says it wants the views of agents and other industry players ahead of making its response to the consultation.

Timothy Douglas, Head of Policy and Campaigns comments: “Propertymark has often stated that undersupply is and continues to be one of the key underlying issues facing the sector today.

“We therefore encourage the UK Government’s commitment to address the undersupply of housing.

“The historic levels of undersupply of homes, exacerbated by empty homes and unused brownfield land, all contribute to people having less choices of where they want to live. 

“While there are several other factors impacting the number of homes that are built every year, we want to see reforms to the planning system that increase the supply homes across all tenures.”

In a recent debate in Parliament on the issue, Bob Seely - MP for the Isle of Wight - called for a planning system that is community and environmentally led that supports levelling up across the country.

He said large developers land-bank large quantities of land that go undeveloped for decades.

The consequences of this, claimed Seely, were that new housing developments were often car-dependent “in the middle of nowhere” and against the wishes of the community, arguing that this is a key reason behind how over 1.1m homes with planning permission are still waiting to be built.

Further questions were raised by other MPs who pointed out several potential loopholes that local authorities could take advantage of in order to build fewer homes than their communities need.

In response, the Minister of State for Housing and Planning Lucy Frazer MP reaffirmed the government’s commitment to building 300,000 new homes a year, and that the upcoming reforms to the planning system will deliver a cultural shift in the way communities actively pursue developments.