Editor: Your story ‘Annual housing supply plummets 11% to lowest level in five years’ is not good news for any of us, but particularly for those who need new homes the most.
The pandemic has exacerbated inefficiencies in the planning process, which had been holding developers back from responding swiftly to local housing needs long before the arrival of Covid.
It now takes far too long for much-needed new properties to be built following the inception of a scheme, leaving far too many people in houses or flats that are simply not right for their needs or, worse, without a home at all.
Only last month, Cornwall Council’s cabinet approved £1m in cuts to its planning services, which will further deplete its number of planning officers.
Cuts to the UK planning system over many years now mean there aren’t enough experienced planning officers to go around. An invaluable asset, they help to push through applications and provide essential counsel to often less qualified local councillors who may not be as well placed to realise the benefits developments could bring to their communities.
We should be recognising the value of well-funded and fully resourced planning departments, and we should be encouraging private developers to better engage with affordable housing providers because of the mutual advantages this can create for the market and our communities.
Engaging and collaborating with affordable housing providers sooner will allow them to better prepare and make use of their income and the high level of funding they often have access to. They will be stronger partners with the ability to provide better homes for a more diverse range of people in schemes that are likely to achieve planning permission more easily.
It’s vitally important we work quickly to turn around this falling level of housing supply. We just cannot afford to ignore the impact a diminished number of homes will end up having on the most disadvantaged in our society.
Jonathan Pearson, director, Residentially Chartered Surveyors
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