It’s no secret that there is a chronic housing shortage in the UK at the moment. The average estate agent typically has 42 homes on their books per branch but currently in London, where the housing shortage is at its most severe and concentrated, there are just 33.

The Prime Minister recently indicated that developers are to blame for the lack of housing in the UK, which is impeding millennials from stepping foot on the property ladder, but just how much truth is there behind her statements?

A vicious cycle

At present, land with planning permission for housing costs around £6 million per hectare. These steep rates are perhaps the reason why the Prime Minister feels that developers are to blame for the housing shortage in the UK. There is a lot of speculation that developers hoard land once they have purchased it, sit on it for a while until they obtain planning permission and then sell the land on for significantly more than what was originally paid.

There are also issued being raised regarding the bonus structures that many construction firms use, which mean that development bosses are cashing in on commission not on the number of houses that they build, but on their profits or share price. This could go some way to explain why many construction firms lack the incentive that is needed to build more houses and address the UK shortage.

This problem isn’t anything new either. An investigation by The Guardian in 2015 revealed that a staggering 600,000 plots with planning permission were owned by some of the largest property builders in the UK, but weren’t being built on.

Steps to change

In an attempt to deliver the homes that the UK needs, the Prime Minister has implemented reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework, which will see the use of land being maximised, protections for the Green Belt being strengthened and a greater emphasis being put on transforming planning permission into new homes.

But just how much of an impact will these changes have? They seem to have been met by stiff opposition by some interested parties, who feel that involving and empowering councils is a better course of action to take, but only time will tell whether the Prime Minister’s decisions will mend the draught that is currently stifling the UK property market.

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The Prime Minister has recently revealed that her second most pertinent concern, first of course being the ever topical Brexit, is to address the housing shortage in the UK.

Much of the criticism that she is putting out is aimed at local authorities that are to some in high power positons, guilty of being far too anti-development.

The housing shortages are of course impeding on the rights and chances of millennials who have dreams of owning their own properties, so how is the Prime Minister planning on addressing this and just how much will her proposals alleviate the problem?

The housing whitepaper

The government is currently planning to rewrite the rules of housing development and there will be a particular emphasis put on boosting the speed at which houses are built and ensuring that prices ease up to allow young purchasers the chance to get onto the property ladder.

The plans stipulate that:

-  Local authorities will have the ability to take into account how quickly a developer builds on a site before issuing future planning permission.

-  If councils are failing to publish housing plans quickly enough, independent inspectors will be able to take over in terms of decision-making.

-  When public land is sold off, those working for councils and hospitals will be given number one priority.

-  Homeowners and property developers will be able to add two storeys to existing properties.

The Prime Minister has also eluded to the fact that developers are in some way to blame for the significant lack of housing within the UK given the fact that there is a pattern within the construction and property development industry of hoarding land that should be being built on and sell the land once planning permission has been obtained.

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