Housing: Supply, quality and community impact

Approximate read time: 10 minutes

On 12 December 2024, the House of Lords will debate the following question for short debate:

Lord Wolfson of Aspley Guise (Conservative) to ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to increase the supply and improve the quality of the homes people want, in the places they want to live, whilst ensuring that development does not adversely affect existing communities.

1. What are the concerns about housebuilding in England?

1.1 Quantity

In July 2023, the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, Angela Rayner, warned that the country was “facing the most acute housing crisis in living memory” and that “there are simply not enough homes”.^[1] A report by the Centre for Cities in 2023 estimated that there needed to be 442,000 new homes in England annually to “close its housing backlog” over 25 years.^[2]

In its latest statistical outlook on net additional dwellings in England, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) reported that 221,070 net additional dwellings were built in England in 2023/24.^[3] This represented a 6% decrease compared to the previous year. Figure 1 shows net additional dwellings in England since 2006/07. This does not take account of demolitions.

Figure 1. Net additional dwellings in England, 2006/07 to 2023/24

1.2 Quality

A recent survey by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) found a lack of trust in new-build housing quality. In December 2023, the CIOB published the findings of a survey of 2,000 adults on new-build housing. The survey found that the majority of respondents (55%) felt that older properties were built to a higher quality than new-build properties.^[4] The survey also found that respondents had a “serious lack of trust” in housing developers to build new homes to high standards, with 33% having a low level of trust in developers. Notably, the CIOB reported that 11% of respondents had purchased a new-build home in the previous 12 months.^[5]

However, the Home Builders Federation, which reported that its member companies build more than 80% of all new homes annually, stated that its surveys suggested that the “overwhelming majority of people” buying new-build properties were “happy with their new home”.^[6]

1.3 Community impact

New housing can create the need for more infrastructure and public services, such as access to healthcare. In October 2024, the chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, Professor Kamila Hawthorne, stated that “as communities expand, it is essential that local services expand as well, and that includes increasing the size and numbers of GP practices”.^[7]

Increasing the supply of housing can also impact green spaces in an area. A 2022 study by the New Economics Foundation found a significant decline in green space provision in newer housing developments.^[8] The analysis found that housing developments built post-2000 had, on average, 40% less green space in their nearest parks (36,200 metres squared) compared to neighbourhoods where most housing was built between 1930 and 1939 (61,500 metres squared).

Access to green space can improve physical and mental health. The Health Foundation, an organisation focused on improving health outcomes, highlighted that these spaces provide opportunities to exercise and stress relief, and reduce air and noise pollution.^[9] Additionally, it reported that people living in areas with less access to green spaces, often linked to deprivation, tend to experience poorer health outcomes and lower life expectancy.

2. What measures has the government proposed?

The government has announced several proposals to increase housing supply and improve the quality of homes. These plans include prioritising building on brownfield sites and introducing legislation to improve local authority planning capacity and processes.

2.1 Planning and housebuilding

In its 2024 general election manifesto, Labour committed to building 1.5mn homes over the next parliament.^[10] It outlined several proposals to achieve this target, including reforming the ‘National planning policy framework’ (NPPF) which outlines the government’s planning policies for England and details how these are expected to be applied.

In its July 2024 King’s Speech, the government announced a planning and infrastructure bill to “accelerate the delivery of high-quality infrastructure and housing”.^[11] The government said the bill would achieve this by:

• further reforming compulsory purchase compensation rules to ensure that compensation paid to landowners was “fair but not excessive” where “important” infrastructure and affordable housing were being delivered
• modernising planning committees to improve local planning decision-making
• increasing local planning authorities’ capacity to improve performance and decision-making

On 30 July 2024, the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, Angela Rayner, made a statement in the House of Commons about the government’s plans for building homes.^[12] She announced that the government would introduce the following measures:

• Restoring and raising housing targets. Restoring the mandatory housing targets removed from the NPPF by the previous Conservative government and requiring local authorities to use the standard method for determining local authorities’ housing requirements. The targets would also be raised from 300,000 to over 370,000 houses annually.
• Green belt development. Requiring local authorities to review green belt boundaries to release land for development and prioritise brownfield and grey belt land (such as disused petrol stations). The government would also establish “golden rules” for green belt development, whereby any residential development must benefit the public and include a target of at least 50% affordable homes.
• Increasing affordable housing. Introducing “more flexibilities” in the current affordable homes programme, reforming the right-to-buy scheme, and providing £450mn funding for local authorities to provide 2,000 affordable homes.
• Infrastructure planning and delivery. Enabling local authorities to put their planning departments on “sustainable footings”, “streamline” the delivery of infrastructure and provide “any legal underpinning” that may be required to ensure that building work and nature recovery are aligned. Additionally, the government would “take the steps needed” for universal coverage of strategic planning between local authorities within the parliamentary session, which will be formalised in legislation. The government has stated that this will support elected mayors in overseeing the development and agreement of special development strategies for their areas.

Ms Rayner also stated that “in the coming months” the government would publish a long-term housing strategy to “transform the housing market”.

Additionally, the government has taken the following action on housing development:

• In July 2024, the MHCLG launched a consultation on proposed changes to the NPPF. This included restoring mandatory housing targets. The consultation closed in September 2024. The government has not yet responded to the consultation.^[13]
• In August 2024, the department introduced the ‘New homes accelerator’ programme to “speed up delivery of stalled housing sites”, which had either been “stuck in the planning system or partially built”. The department noted that it had estimated that there were 200 large sites across England, which could deliver up to 300,000 new homes.^[14]
• In September 2024, the department launched a call for evidence to seek views on strategies to support brownfield land development in urban areas. This included proposals on the type of scale of development.^[15]
• In October 2024, the government announced £68mn of funding to 54 councils to build new homes on brownfield sites. The government said that the funding would enable the building of 5,200 homes.^[16]
• In the 2024 autumn budget, HM Treasury announced £46mn of additional funding to support reforms to local authority planning. This funding would fund the recruitment and training of 300 graduates and apprentice planners, accelerate the development of large sites that were “stuck in the system”, and improve local planning authority capacity.^[17]

2.2 Housing design and quality

In its manifesto, the Labour Party committed to building “more high-quality, well-designed and sustainable homes”.^[18]

On 12 November 2024, the minister of state for housing and planning, Matthew Pennycook, made a written statement on housing design and quality.^[19] Mr Pennycook outlined that in addition to the proposed reforms to the NPPF, MHCLG intended to update the ‘National design guide’ and ‘National model design code’ in spring 2025.^[20] He also said that the new towns taskforce, an independent expert advisory panel established in September 2024, had been asked “to ensure that quality and design are integral to its agenda”. In particular, it had “been explicitly tasked with setting out clear principles and standards for new large-scale communities to ensure they are well-connected, sustainable, well-designed, and attractive”.

3. What reaction has there been to the government’s proposals?

Several housing and planning organisations have welcomed the government’s policies on housebuilding and planning reform. The chief executive of the Home Builders Federation, Neil Jefferson, said that “the scale of the government’s housing ambition has given hope to the home building industry that stands ready to increase supply and tackle the country’s housing shortage”.^[21] Similarly, Victoria Hills, the chief executive of the Royal Town Planning Institute, stated that the government had “laid the groundwork for achieving its housing and infrastructure ambitions by setting plans to increase the capacity of local planning authorities”.^[22]

However, some organisations have argued that further action is needed for the government to achieve its housing targets. James Dunne, head of operational real estate at the asset management company Abrdn, suggested that the government “needs to go beyond the planning system and work in partnership and financially support the private sector to deliver significant volumes of housing across all tenures”.^[23] Additionally, a report published by the Centre for Cities on 3 December 2024 warned that even if the current planning system built new homes at the rate of its strongest period (1954–79 in England), it would still fall short of the target by 388,000 homes.^[24] The report noted the shortfall was “unlikely to be bridged in full by public sector housebuilding” in the next five years. To address this shortfall, the Centre for Cities recommended several measures, including replacing the current “discretionary” planning system with a “rules-based, European-style, flexible zoning system” and releasing some green belt land for development, particularly near railway stations with connections to England’s “most expensive cities”.

4. Read more

• Heather Stewart, ‘Radical planning reform needed to hit 1.5mn housebuilding target in England, Labour warned’, Guardian, 3 December 2024
• Alex Diner et al, ‘Building the homes we need: The economic and social value of investing in a new generation of social housing’, New Economics Foundation, October 2024
• Mitchell Labiak, ‘Labour’s plan to build 1.5m homes—can it be delivered?’, BBC News, 26 September 2024
• Camron Aref-Adib et al, ‘Building blocks: Assessing the role of planning reform in meeting the government’s housing targets’, Resolution Foundation, September 2024
• Homes England, ‘New homes fact sheet series: Guidance note’, 2 November 2023

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Cover image by Louis Reed on Unsplash.

This briefing has been updated to clarify the scope of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government statistics on net housing additions in section 1.1.