Government urged to streamline planning process for SME developers

Smaller housebuilders are struggling to build at scale because they have to submit more planning applications than the big players for the same number of homes.

That is according to agency body Propertymark, as smaller developers are likely to build on smaller sites than the major builders.

Propertymark encouraged the government to introduce a streamlined planning process for SMEs, thereby encouraging more building on brownfield sites, who could then contribute more housebuilding towards the government’s annual target.

Henry Griffith, policy and campaigns officer at Propertymark, said: “Propertymark fully welcomes any efforts to help the UK government meet their ambitious target of constructing 1.5 million new homes in England by 2029, which is why helping SMEs is crucial if they are keen on hitting this ambitious aim in less than five years’ time.

“This can only be achieved via a streamlined planning process that boosts the number of properties being constructed, alongside other measures such as local councils investing in ecologists to help developers through planning applications, and by targeting the Building Safety Levy appropriately.”

The number of larger projects has increased in recent years, with massive projects of over 500 units representing 38% of new developments, a surge from only 8% from 25 years ago.

Propertymark added that there’s a need for more workers trained.

Meanwhile local councils need to be given the resources to invest in ecologists to help developers organise their own Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) and other environmental needs, which are renowned for being rejected by local councils.

Finally, Propertymark said that the Building Safety Levy must be targeted to all industries responsible for installing dangerous cladding. As it stands developers who never installed unsafe cladding are being charged for an issue they did not create.

Propertymark was responding to the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government’s (MHCLG) Planning Reform Working Paper Reforming Site Thresholds consultation.