Developers ‘in limbo’ following change in planning

I recently wrote about the Government’s decision this month to officially scrap Regional Strategies and their centrally-imposed home building targets – and the problems that this change would initially bring for housebuilders.

Well, according to new research by the Financial Times newspaper, since May (when the Government announced its intention to scrap the Regional Strategies), local authorities have rejected a number of residential development projects that would have created 7,500 new homes across the UK. Why? Because local authorities felt emboldened by the Government’s decision on 27 May to allow them to act as though the Regional Strategies had already been scrapped (even though they officially hadn’t been scrapped and wouldn’t be until 6 July.)

Whilst local authorities await more guidance from the Government on its housing policy, developers find themselves ‘in limbo’, with a growing number of local development plans either being cancelled or put on hold because of uncertainty over the policy. The implementation of the financial incentives that the Government has proposed to encourage local authorities to build more houses can’t come quick enough.