Speeding Up Build Out consultation

I won't repost Kier's 'Just Get On With It' quote. We've all seen it! The team behind this consultation, which is designed to speed up housebuilding completions, must be cringing at how badly it's been marketed.

The Speeding Up Build Out proposal is designed to improve communication between councils and developers, and to better understand why site delays happen.

It's totally overshadowed a proposal for better collaboration, transparency and data sharing between developers and councils in England. If the plan was to annoy housebuilders and whip up a frenzy in the newsrooms of certain publications, mission accomplished!

The 'Speeding Up Build Out' consultation is open for feedback until 7th July. You're welcome to comment here, but you'll have more impact if you fill in the official questionnaire:

https://consult.communities.gov.uk/planning/build-out-transparency-consultation/

The proposal is for planning applications of 50+ dwellings to include a build-out schedule. Later, the developer confirms to the Local Planning Authority when work commences on site, and then provides annual updates on progress until all plots are complete.

If timeframes start to slip, the developer tells the planners why, and they agree on an updated schedule. 

Developers who don't submit annually, or who regularly let dates slip without good reason, could have future applications refused.

This isn't to trip up housebuilders, but to understand why delays happen. Finding trends will help find solutions.

There's even talk of rewarding developers who get homes built ahead of schedule.

Now for the part the news got excited about:

🧱 Where a housebuilder is deemed to be purposefully missing deadlines, a Delayed Homes Penalty could be applied.

🧱 Where a half-built site is caught in limbo, eg. a bankruptcy, Compulsory Purchase Order powers will be extended so local authorities can take over 'stalled developments'.

None of the above is set in stone yet, but the new rules should be ready next year.

Why is this needed?

The UK Government tracks how many homes are in the planning system, and tracks how many new homes are completed, but the bit in between is a mystery.

By collecting annual data from all large sites, we can build a picture of what's actually going on. Maybe delays are caused by material issues, shortage of skilled labour, weather conditions, local bureaucracy, all of the above. Without fact-gathering at a national level, it's too easy to just blame the builders.

And once we know, the New Homes Accelerator programme will look for solutions.

The report suggests these scenarios will also be under the spotlight:

🟢 Planning conditions that are too restrictive

🟠 Large sites with one construction company (no competition)

🟡 Absorption rates (when building work slows to balance supply-and-demand)

🟣 Plots with guaranteed buyers (like affordable housing, experiences fewer delays)

Setting build schedules through planning isn't a silver bullet to fix all our problems, but this is part of a much wider project to modernise our planning system. Expect to see more radical ideas in the near future.