Changing policies to build more houses may have slowed housebuilding in England
Key Points
- Planning reforms aimed at boosting housebuilding in England may have actually slowed down the process.
- According to a report by Savills, uncertainty over policy has exacerbated weaker market conditions to slow housebuilding in the country.
- The highest level of new homes delivered was between 2016 and 2020, when policy introduced in 2012 had bedded in and stability was highest.
- With just 143,119 new homes delivered last year, Labour's housebuilding targets are increasingly out of reach, but Rayner remains committed to building 1.5 million new homes by the end of this Parliament.
A new report has found that the lack of new houses being built in England is not only due to an economic slowdown, but also a product of policy change and uncertainty.
According to a report from estate agency Savills, housebuilding in England reached its highest levels between 2016 and 2020, after the market had become accustomed to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) introduced in 2012.
The data shows that during this four-year period, more than 300,000 planning consents were delivered per year, with new home completions peaking at 245,600 homes in the year to March 2020. Since then, the report states that weaker market conditions have been compounded by uncertainty caused by planning reforms and delays to Local Plan preparation.
It noted that while planning reforms would be welcomed in principle, including measures such as mandatory housing targets, the focus should now be on building stability around current policies rather than introducing further changes. To support this recommendation, it pointed to the recovering levels of planning applications, which rose by 44% in the year to Q3 2025.
“The planning debate often focuses on what needs to change next, but our analysis suggests the bigger issue is how frequently the system changes,” said Savills Director of Residential Research Emily Williams.
“Planning reform is important, but reforms need time to work – if policy is continually revisited before it has had a chance to bed in, the industry struggles to respond effectively.”
Housebuilding targets increasingly out of reach
The peak figure of 245,600 homes delivered in the year to 2020 is the highest in recent years, but it is still well below the average of 300,000 new homes per year promised by Labour in its 2024 manifesto (1.5 million new homes across a five-year parliament).
Last year, the government delivered just 143,110 new homes, and newly reappointed Housing Secretary Angela Rayner told the BBC’s Today programme this past weekend that the goal promised in the party’s manifesto would be a stretch.
“1.5 million homes is a difficult target. It was when I made the target, but I’m going to keep the target, and I’m not going to be defeated,” Rayner said.
Rayner has ruled out rent controls in England, but it is expected that with the appointment of Andy Burnham as Prime Minister, there will be significant changes to planning policy, as Burnham pointed to the biggest housebuilding effort in decades in his inaugural speech.
Planning approval is not the only obstacle to housebuilding. In London, there are 159,923 homes that have approval but remain unbuilt – more than three times the 52,930 homes currently under construction in the capital’s 48 Opportunity Areas.
Many of these homes sit on sites where development has commenced but since stalled, or where construction has not yet started.
