Here is powerful evidence that the planning system is driving up the cost of housing.

It is part of the system, now, that developers are obliged to create 'affordable housing' in expensive areas. This is gesture towards the idea of making housing more affordable for those who are less well off. But it is one of those gestures that costs the pretend benefactor - the council - nothing but costs the developer and those who buy the accomodation which is not 'affordable' plenty. It is a hidden tax.

While local and perhaps national governments feel they are being terribly philanthropic about this (with other people's money - the modern way) they are themselve guilty of making housing more expensive for the less well off. How? Through the planning system.

It has now reached the stage where one of Britain's major building companies says it has to spend more on getting planning permissions than on buying bricks.

Here is what the chairman said:

The only negative point is that the roll out is being constrained by the time taken by local authorities to give planning permission on both existing and new developments.

Indeed, on the subject of planning, since my return to Redrow some 11 months ago, I have been dismayed by the sheer levels of bureaucracy and red tape that have crept into the planning system. The list of documents required to accompany planning applications verges on the comical. Even the simplest of planning applications frequently takes many months to secure approval and indeed there are many examples where the months turn into years. It is reflective of the system that Redrow, as one of the UK's largest home builders, now spends more money on planning and planning related fees than it does on bricks.

The Planning Green Paper produced by the Conservative Party this week proposes a complete revolution for the planning system. It does however raise a whole different set of concerns for the industry and in particular its proposal for third party appeals is likely to result in an even more bureaucratic system.

There is no doubt that the current planning system needs substantially streamlining and speeding up. The result would be an increased supply of new housing, significantly more employment and a major stimulus to the UK economy.

This is from pages 6-7 of the Redrow interim report published in February, I think.

Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in Housing

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