Inefficient planning laws cost UK four million houses – Show House

A new report from the Centre for Cities suggests that over four million homes have been lost to ‘inefficient’ and ‘outdated’ planning.
The think tank’s report, ‘The Housebuilding Crisis’ states that the case-by-case process currently in use which is based on the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act has resulted in an ‘unpredictable system’ that has seen housebuilding slowed down and drop significantly below the averages of Europe over the last seven decades.
As a result, the Centre for Cities finds that the slowing of housing delivery equates to around 4.3million homes that could have potentially been built since the fifties.
That means that, even if the government achieved its current target of building 300,000 homes a year, the longstanding deficit would take at least 50 years to overturn.
Centre for Cities’ report proposes reforming the planning system to create a flexible, rules-based zoning process, removing the high levels of discretion over what gets built by councils.
Andrew Carter, chief executive of Centre for Cities, said: “This research shows that the UK’s planning policy has held back the economy for nearly three-quarters of a century, stifling growth and exacerbating a housing crisis that has blighted the country for decades.”
“Big problems require big solutions and if the government is to clear its backlog of unbuilt homes, it must first deliver planning reform. Failure to do this will only continue to limit England’s housebuilding potential and prevent millions from getting on the property ladder.”
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