Building sites and battlegrounds - will Labour’s 1.5m new homes plan collapse?

The new Government’s plan to ‘Get Britain Building’ is ambitious, to say the least. 
 
And it is central to their mission, not only to help solve the nation’s housing crisis, but to create much-needed growth in the country’s stuttering economy. 
 
The proposal - to build 1.5 million new homes over five years - was first outlined last Autumn but its inclusion in the party’s pre-election manifesto makes it a firm commitment which will be preceded by a root and branch reform of the National Planning Policy Framework, as mentioned in this week’s King’s Speech. 
 
The manifesto says: “Labour will prioritise the building of new social rented homes and better protect our existing stock by reviewing the increased Right To Buy discounts introduced in 2012 and increasing protections on newly built social housing.” 
 
And Labour has said its aim is that 40% of the new-builds (600,000) will be socially rented or 
affordable housing - a tall order in the current construction climate. 
 
Offers more clues 
 
According to the Homebuilders Federation, in the 12 months to March 2024, the number of both units and sites ‘continued to plummet to record lows.’ 
 
The number of units stood at 236,644 – the lowest for almost a decade. And the number of units gaining planning approval (53,862) was the lowest quarterly total since Q2, 2015 – a 19% drop on the previous quarter and a 13% fall on the same period last year. 
 
So how is Sir Keir Starmer going to succeed where the Conservatives failed? 
 
The manifesto offers more clues: 
 
•  Reintroduce local authority housing targets (suspended under the Tories) 
•  Include new towns in the proposals 
•  Brownfield and grey-belt-first developments 
•  Tell councils to update Local Plans 
•  Funding of 300 additional planning officers 
•  Prioritise the building of new social rented homes, review Right To Buy and increase protections on new-built social housing 

So, what’s the problem? 
 
None of this has happened yet. 
 
During the previous Conservative government, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing 
and Communities, Michael Gove, tried in vain to tackle the planning process and increase house building but was foiled – often by his own backbenchers. 
 
Keir Starmer now has a vast majority on his side but even the best of plans in Opposition can fall foul of the political realities of government and the drag of NIMBYism. 
 
But perhaps the tallest barrier to progress in hitting the 1.5m target lies within the construction industry itself. Despite it being one of the largest industrial sectors in the country, there is a massive shortage of skilled workers. 
 
Continue to rise 
 
According to a report by the Construction Skills Network, there is a need for a further 251,500 extra workers needed by 2028 to meet the expected levels of work. 
 
The government’s target is 1.5million new homes by the time of the next election and we should bear in mind that a spade has yet to hit the ground. 
 
As business people, we have to deal with hard facts and the truth is that nothing much will change overnight and in the short to medium term, the sector is going to look very much like it does today. That means, for the Private Sector, rents will continue to rise and if the government does nothing to help landlords financially, supply of homes may shrink still further. 
 
Hard-pressed tenants will continue to struggle and companies like flatfair, which offer significant money-saving alternatives to traditional deposits will be needed more than ever. 
 
Standard rental deposits are becoming increasingly expensive and the problems associated 
with tenants’ affordability are not going away any time soon.