Government to set up ‘New Homes Accelerator’ team
On 29th August, Housing Secretary Angela Rayner announced that the Government will be setting up the New Homes Accelerator, a team dedicated to accelerating the delivery of homes currently stuck in the planning system.
Commenting, Rayner said: ‘For far too long the delivery of tens of thousands of new homes has been held back by a failure to make sure the development system is working as it should.
‘This Government has a moral obligation to do everything within our power to build the homes that people desperately need and we won’t hesitate to intervene where we need to.
‘Our New Homes Accelerator will quickly identify blockages, fix problems and support local authorities and developers to get shovels in the ground.’
Government analysis estimates there are 200 large sites across the UK the team could release, which would deliver up to 300,000 homes. The team will work with Government agencies, local authorities, and housebuilders to resolve specific local issues and to deploy planning experts where necessary to work through any troublesome blockages.
The New Homes Accelerator was initially announced in the Chancellor’s speech at the beginning of July and, since that announcement, the team has begun the progression of housing sites in Liverpool, Worcester, Northstowe and Sutton Coldfield, which together will deliver 14,000 homes.
David O’Leary, Executive Director of the Home Builder’s Federation, has welcomed the new team, saying: ‘The planning process and everything associated with it delivers too little land and has long been a significant constraint on house building. Government has shown a welcome desire in the weeks since the election to address the problems.’
He added that this announcement would hopefully decrease the risk for SME house builders when it came to costs and timescales.
The announcement builds on the Government’s raft of measures since the election that aim to turbocharge housebuilding and meet a target of 1.5 million homes in this Parliament.
As Parliament returns from its summer break this week, we expect further announcements from the new Government regarding housebuilding as well as the continuing consultation on the new NPPF.
