Labour's target of 1.5m new homes requires lower interest rates and cheaper construction costs: Killian Gallagher

It is clear that change is needed so the question is will the new Government take the necessary steps to deliver this change?

To date, we have the aforementioned manifesto, several post election speeches and, perhaps most importantly a draft National Planning Policy Framework which was published for consultation recently.

The draft National Planning Policy Framework (this document was first introduced in 2012 and sets out a broad brush planning policy framework by which planning decisions should be made) will, if adopted, require local authorities to review their Green Belt areas with a view to identifying what “grey belt” land that could be released for development.

Grey belt land is green belt land that is “poor quality and ugly”.

It is also the Government’s intention to prioritise development opportunities on brownfield sites.

Brownfield sites are generally defined as land which was previously developed.

Other headline measures outlined include the reintroduction of “mandatory” housing targets, a pledge to build 1.5 million homes across the UK over the lifetime of this Parliament, the funding of an additional 300 local planning authority planning officers and the creation of a specialist taskforce to help unlock large scale housing sites that have been delayed in the planning system.

For those of us who have worked in the sector for a few decades, many of the proposed measures will sound familiar; we have heard previous governments pledge to build on brownfield sites, to ramp up housing numbers and to stimulate economic growth by overhauling the planning system.

I particularly welcome the provision of much needed support for local authorities through the provision of an additional 300 planning officers across the country. This measure alone will not go far enough but it is a step in the right direction. I feel that more direct measures may be required to bolster a higher quality forward planning and development management service across the country.

Green Belt tends to be an emotive and divisive topic. The fact is though, that there is land allocated as Green Belt that is not beautiful, rolling countryside – some Green Belt is visually unattractive, is previously developed and does not function as Green Belt was intended to when first introduced.

I appreciate the need to prevent urban coalescence and sprawl and to protect the setting of historic towns but building on some low quality “grey belt” sites will not prejudice these primary functions of Green Belt.

The 1.5 million new homes figure is quite ambitious in my opinion. It won’t be capable of delivery unless interest rates and construction costs come down and the volume housebuilding companies ramp up supply.

These companies react to market forces in the same way other large businesses do and they will build to match sales rates. There has also been a traditional under appreciation of the role in housing delivery small and medium sized development companies play, particularly in more rural areas such as East Yorkshire.

In addition to the measures summarised above, policy support for onshore wind energy developments has already been enhanced with the removal of a de facto ban on new wind turbines removed from the National Planning Policy Framework within days of the election.

Personally, I had hoped that the Government might consider the wisdom of scrapping the recently introduced (by the previous Government) Biodiversity Net Gain system. This is proving to be extremely unpopular, unwieldy and is already acting as a barrier to development, particularly on brownfield sites and in areas with lower land values.

Based on discussions with colleagues in the industry, there has been a broad but, in some cases, cautious welcome to the announced measures and indeed the contents of the draft National Planning Policy Framework. As always time will tell how successful the Government will be in reaching its ambitions.

Killian Gallagher is a Chartered Town Planner who runs a planning consultancy called Gallagher Planning with offices in York and Beverley.