Developers urge Labour to cut red tape and boost housebuilding

The government has been urged to slash red tape and boost housebuilding in the UK as the rate of construction of new homes falls well behind Labour’s own targets. A group of property and investment leaders have handed a set of proposals to the government which they say will get stalled housing schemes moving and tackle the burden of building regulation. The proposals, led by King’s Cross developer Related Argent and the Institute of Directors, come as housebuilders including Taylor Wimpey and Berkeley warn that building in London is becoming increasingly unviable.

Tom Goodall, chief executive director of Related Argent, said: “It costs more to build a home in Bristol than in Paris, Los Angeles or Sydney. “The bricks, steel and concrete are not fundamentally different here; what compounds the cost is the time, complexity and regulatory burden involved in getting homes built.” The proposals emerging from the roundtable, which was also attended by experts from the Building Safety Regulator, the Ministry of Housing, Barclays and the Greater London Authority, focus on slashing the red tape facing developers.

The government should introduce time-limited stamp duty relief for new-build homes to accelerate sales and in turn make these projects more viable for developers, the group said. Last month, Andy Burnham announced a revived Help to Buy scheme which offers equity loans to help first-time buyers pay the deposit on a new-build home. Housebuilders welcomed the programme but property experts warned that more is needed to boost housing supply.

Planning reforms ‘only the start’ The property developers, led by Related Argent, have also urged the government to ensure that all new build-to-rent homes are exempted from rent controls for a quarter of a century. This would give institutional investors better certainty when committing to projects, they said. The government has also been urged to offer VAT on service charges for new-build homes, set up a ring-fenced fund for local authorities to access planning expertise, and ensure greater certainty around the costs of regulation.

Related Argent’s Goodall said: “Government is right to reform planning, but consent is only the start. If schemes cannot be financed, sold or delivered with confidence, they will not move from paper to construction. “We can grant all the permissions we like, but unless we tackle the economics of delivery, we will continue to fall short.” The developers’ proposals come as London lags behind housebuilding targets. In the 2024-2025 financial year, work was started on only five per cent of the 88,000 homes which are supposed to be built in the capital each year.

Nationwide, the government has pledged to build 1.5m homes by the end of this Parliament but housing secretary Angela Rayner has admitted that this was always a “stretch target”. John German, managing director at investment management firm Invesco, said: “What is compelling about these proposals is that they are focused on enabling delivery rather than simply creating new subsidy. Relatively targeted changes that improve certainty, reduce avoidable friction and strengthen viability can allow private capital to do more of the heavy lifting.

“Getting more housing built is also about much more than the homes themselves. It unlocks investment, construction activity and jobs and supports wider economic growth.”