How will Labour solve the housing crisis?

There is a commitment to build 1.5 million new homes over the lifetime of this parliament. But what do that and policy changes mean for architects? Primarily, that building homes is a government priority, with planning reform as much as finance seen as a means of releasing private funds to achieve it.

Deputy prime minister and secretary of state for housing, communities and local government Angela Rayner was clear that this was intended as both a way of dealing with the housing crisis and as a driver for economic growth. It is significant not only that Rayner has this portfolio but also that in the first King’s Speech of the Labour government, the news of a Planning and Infrastructure Bill rapidly followed the commitment to raise people’s living standards. Perhaps this is no surprise, as it was one of three major pledges in its manifesto.

A consultation on England’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), last revised in December 2023, was rapidly published over the summer, closing on 24 September. The headlines that have emerged so far are around the dropping of ‘beauty’, the new designation of grey belt (effectively degraded greenbelt) and a reintroduction of mandatory housing targets. We will come back to these.

What the bill holds

We await publication of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which will apply primarily to England and Wales. But early hints from Rayner suggest it will focus on unlocking barriers to creating infrastructure ‘laboratories, gigafactories, data centres and electricity grid connections’. And that it will attempt to allow local authorities to capture uplifts in land value. At the same time Rayner has promised that it will ‘reform planning committees’.

Plans for the promised ‘council house revolution’ are yet to come, but may be enabled via a change to the borrowing rules for local authorities. Rayner has already promised ‘flexibility’ in Homes England’s Affordable Homes Grant, which contributes significantly to the funding for many affordable homes. At present it has £7.39 billion of government money for up to 130,000 dwellings outside London by the end of March 2026. The existing plan, announced last March, for a third, £450 million round of Local Authority Housing Fund grants, has been confirmed as going ahead, with – Local Government Chronicle reports – the intention to fund 2,000 new homes. Later in the year there is a consultation on Right to Buy for council houses (a right which Rayner herself exercised), to keep them in social ownership. This is likely to be bundled into a long-term strategy for housing that is also promised.

It is also worth keeping an eye out for a ‘new generation of new towns’ and urban extensions, which RIBA president Muyiwa Oki has already warned must be well-connected to social infrastructure such as schools and healthcare facilities. The New Town Taskforce will be headed by Michael Lyons, chair of the  English Cities Fund – a major player in regeneration – with housing economist Kate Barker as deputy chair. The plan is for ‘exemplary’ developments of 10,000 or more homes, with 40% affordable homes  focused on social rented, based on a ’New Town Code’.

So back to the NPPF proposals, which are now out for consultation. Organisations will be setting out their stalls on these over the next few weeks as they seek to garner support for the way they believe these issues should be resolved. The RIBA will of course be one of those responding directly.

Mandatory housing targets

Local area housing targets for new homes were demoted to mere ambitions in the last years of the previous government. Now they are being reinstated as mandatory, even as Rayner revealed that nationally the figures for this year would fall short, reaching 200,000 rather than 300,000, and that affordable homes won’t reach their target of 170,00 but stalled at 130,000. The new government is aiming for 370,000 homes a year.

And there is a consultation on the new method of calculating mandatory housing targets that moves away from factoring in ‘urban uplift’ to a calculation that includes local need and house prices (affordability). Calculations using this process have been released for authorities across England, with London seeing an overall reduction in targets – although London boroughs such as Bexley and Islington would be asked to up their delivery.

There are some surprising targets based on this calculation around England. North Yorkshire, its A1(M) corridor hemmed in by the Pennines on one side and North York Moors on the other, would be looking at delivering nearly 70% on top of its existing targets for this year, presumably as the region borders Leeds, York and Middlesborough. Coventry’s target meanwhile falls dramatically.

Grey belt

Labour has clearly stated that land use policy is for ‘brownfield first’.  It has also stated that it is ‘committed to preserving the green belt’. But it is consulting on the new designation of ‘grey belt’ – and its definition.

Before he became prime minister, Keir Starmer drew attention to it as including ‘poor-quality land, car parks and wastelands’. The NPPF proposals define grey belt as ‘land in the green belt comprising Previously Developed Land and any other parcels and/or areas of Green Belt land that make a limited contribution to the five Green Belt purposes.’ This excludes areas with certain designations.

Green belts encircle 16 urban centres in England, and make up 16,384 km² (6,326 square miles) according to government data, 6.8% of which has ‘developed use’ in their figures. Knight Frank has estimated ‘previously developed sites’ as just 1% of the green belt, having identified 11,000 sites. Whatever the scale, the government is hoping to have ambitious rules for any developments on such sites.

‘Golden rules’ have been talked about politically, and although the term doesn’t appear in the proposed NPPF, the rules most certainly do. They will require 50% of housing on sites where there is release of grey belt to be affordable. In her speech to the House of Commons and questions on this Rayner repeatedly mentioned the golden rules, saying ‘we will expect a great deal from developers when they are using that land’. This has led to questions over the viability of developments using benchmark land values, one of the elements on which the proposal seeks views.

The other potential change to green belt development is that local authorities who cannot bring forward enough land to meet five-year housing land supply targets (or needs for commercial or other developments) will have to review their green belt boundaries through the Local Plan process.

Beauty?

Labour alarmed some commentators during the election when it used images for a press release from Create Streets, a consultancy set up by an ex-Conservative advisor which also pushed ‘beauty’. The publication of the NPPF consultation with tracked changes showing corrections quickly drew attention to the relegation of the word ‘beauty’ to the back seat, settling on a less politically freighted ‘well-designed’ or ‘design quality’ which instead stand on their own.

Speaking on Radio 2, Rayner said: ‘All that wording was doing was blocking and preventing development. That’s why we think it’s too subjective.’ Architects will know that design quality itself has also proved subjective in the past. But she is concerned that the move is not seen as a repudiation of good design, continuing: ‘I don’t buy this idea that I’m just going to build a load of ugly houses.’

Indeed, ‘beautiful’ remains in the consultation, with reference to ‘The creation of high quality, beautiful and sustainable buildings’ and design codes aimed at ‘creating beautiful and distinctive places with a consistent and high-quality standard of design’. For design, the reference point continues to be the National Model Design Code, the National Design Guide and local codes based on them, although the consultation raises questions about changing the focus of design codes from buildings to place.

As an aside, the incredibly specific reference to mansard roofs has also been removed so now the encouragement is for upward extensions, with mansard roofs just one of its many forms. 

Section 106

The Infrastructure Levy that was due to effectively replace the Community Infrastructure Levy and Section 106 has been dropped. Instead it is clear that the government is emphasising Section 106, bringing forward social housing and social infrastructure.

In her parliamentary statement on housing, and the ensuing questions, Rayner made 13 references to Section 106. That’s not surprising, since  47% of social housing in 2022/3 had money from a section 106. Rayner says that the HCLG will be ‘working to ensure that local authorities are given the resources they need and the expertise from here, so that they can get the best out of Section 106 notices.’

This is not the only offer to empower planners. Rayner said: ‘We will enable local authorities to put their planning departments on sustainable footings.’ It is not clear yet if this just relates to the promised recruitment of 300 planners (funded by increasing the rate of stamp duty paid by non-UK residents); but if so, it is a drop in the ocean. The Royal Town Planning Institute has previously pointed out that it amounts to less than one tenth of the planners who left the profession in the first decade of the Conservative government.

As in many of the new government’s policy areas, the devil is in the detail; and in many cases a sense remains of not knowing where the money is coming from. As Chancellor Rachel Reeves reviews previously ‘unfunded’ commitments from the last administration and puts the New Hospital Programme on hold, it has to be hoped that the powers of the NPPF and upcoming legislation will get private sector developers on board to deliver many of those promised houses.

Find the National Planning Policy Framework draft text for consultation here

Incoming Bills

Other upcoming legislation that may affect construction, property, architecture and the profession

• English Devolution Bill: more strategic powers for local leaders
• Great British Energy Bill: aimed at accelerating investment in clean energy
• Employment Rights Bill: outlawing exploitative working practices
• Skills England Bill: including reform of the apprenticeship levy