“Planning rules in this country are not designed to shape development. They are designed to prevent it.” The speaker is Freddie Poser, director of Priced Out, a lobby group for housing affordability, but it could be anyone in the construction trade.
Planning in the UK is dire. Slow. Bureaucratic. Unpredictable. And getting worse. In a recent twist, Natural England demanded 120,000 new-build houses be put on hold until developers can prove they are not adding to nutrient pollution. “A complete mess,” said the Community Planning Alliance.
The result is a housing shortage. Vacant dwellings are 2.6% of the stock, by far the lowest among comparable nations – in France it’s 8%, Japan at 14%. Homes are tiny, too. The average new-build in England in the UK is 76m2, compared to 112m2 in France and 137m2 in Denmark. Room size in the UK is less than half of Denmark.