Savills : House of Lords Built Environment Committee publishes report on Meeting Housing Demand

The Built Environment Committee was appointed to consider matters relating to the built environment including policies on housing, planning and transportation.

Savills provided evidence to the Committee on the barriers and opportunities to improve delivery of new housing in England.

The Committee concluded that too many people currently live in expensive, unsuitable, and poor-quality homes and housing supply must be increased to tackle the housing crisis. Government must address barriers to building much needed new homes.

Findings and conclusions from the Committee include:

• The role of Small and Medium Enterprises in the housebuilding industry has collapsed. SMEs should be supported by reducing planning risk, making more small sites available, and increasing access to finance.

• The population is ageing and by 2050 one in four people in the UK will be over 65. The country needs more specialist and mainstream housing suitable for the elderly.

• Uncertainty and delays to planning reforms have had a 'chilling effect' on housebuilding and created uncertainty for housebuilders and planners. We need more up-to-date local plans, and these need to be simpler, clearer, and more transparent. Planning departments need more resource to avert an emerging crisis.

• The Government's own figures show that skills shortages accounted for 36% of all construction vacancies and 48% of all manufacturing and skilled trades vacancies. Skills shortages must be addressed, through broadening the base of talent, upskilling and reskilling, including for the green skills needed to address climate change. The Apprenticeship Levy needs urgent reform. We call for the New Homes Ombudsman's powers to be robust and adequately enforced to ensure homes are built to high standards of quality and design.

• Government must change its approach to spending on housing. Over time the money spent on housing benefit should be invested in increasing the social housing stock. Right to Buy schemes are not good value for money: increasing the housing supply would be a more effective use of funding.

David Bainbridge, Planning Director in Savills, commented:

"We welcome the Committee report which has carefully considered evidence from a range of organisations and has set-out clear findings and conclusions. We hope Government will carefully consider and act upon the recommendations to address the long-term undersupply of new housing through reducing the barriers to meeting housing demand. This is a national crisis in housing which should be prioritised as part of any levelling-up agenda."