London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Aug 22, 2025

Government's housebuilding U-turn makes it 'harder to deliver 300,000 homes'

Government's housebuilding U-turn makes it 'harder to deliver 300,000 homes'

Critics say some cities are already struggling to find land on brownfield sites
A government U-turn on plans to increase housebuilding in the Tory heartlands will make it harder to hit the target of building 300,000 new homes every year, leading planners have warned.

Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary, announced on Wednesday that 20 cities would instead be asked to build an extra 100,000 new homes in the next five years, heading off a rebellion from Conservative councillors and backbenchers.

But planners said it would make it more difficult to increase housebuilding because some cities were already struggling to find land on brownfield sites and it might trigger protracted negotiations where cities tried to hand off their housing requirements to neighbouring rural authorities.

Jenrick said the new housing plan was “levelling up” by targeting 35% increases in building in cities including Bradford, Hull, Leeds and Stoke. He said that after Covid’s economic impact there was an “opportunity to repurpose more commercial centres, offices and retail spaces into housing”.

Outside London, Birmingham is set to see the biggest increase in proposed building, with more than 1,200 additional new homes now expected on top of existing demand for 3,577 per year. Bristol is being told it will need to more than double its existing annual delivery from about 1,500 to 3,200, according to analysis by Lichfields, a planning and development consultancy.

But Matthew Spry, senior director of Lichfields, said the new system “makes it more difficult to deliver 300,000 homes a year”.

He said that some of the cities facing demands for more housebuilding had previously struggled because “they don’t have enough land”.

Toby Lloyd, Theresa May’s former housing adviser, said the strategy would not, on its own, boost housebuilding, and shifting targets to cities may make hitting housing targets harder, without other measures.

“The government remains stuck in the same hole as before, namely, how to square centralised target-setting with the desire to leave actual decisions on where homes go to local processes,” he said. “Shifting the balance of the formula towards cities and the north may relieve the immediate political pressure, but without stronger interventions as well it won’t address the deeper problems of planning, housing supply or affordability.”

Jenrick said: “This government wants to build more homes as a matter of social justice, for intergenerational fairness and to create jobs for working people. We are reforming our planning system to ensure it is simpler and more certain without compromising standards of design, quality and environmental protection.”

The shift to building in cities follows a political backlash in August against what one Tory MP described as a “mutant algorithm” which prioritised building in villages and towns in the south-east, while reducing construction of new housing in northern England. It was designed, in part, to suggest more housebuilding in areas of greatest unaffordability.

The Local Government Association said it would “seriously jeopardise” the government’s professed intent to level up economic activity in disadvantaged areas of the country. The CPRE charity said it would lead to “a massive loss of countryside”.

The original proposals would have reportedly required housebuilding in Newcastle to fall by 66%, Manchester by 37% and the north-east generally by 28%, while in the south-east outside London development would have risen by 57%.

Critics said the plans as they stood would abolish the traditional distinction in British planning between built-up areas and the 70-80% of land that was still rural and accelerate the decline of poorer cities.

The new plans include a £100m “brownfield land release fund” to promote urban regeneration and development on public sector land.

Ministers also allocated more than £67m in funding to the West Midlands and Greater Manchester authorities to deliver new homes.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
After 200,000 Orders in 2 Minutes: Xiaomi Accelerates Marketing in Europe
Ukraine Declares De Facto War on Hungary and Slovakia with Terror Drone Strikes on Their Gas Lifeline
Animated K-pop Musical ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Becomes Netflix’s Most-Watched Original Animated Film
New York Appeals Court Voids Nearly $500 Million Civil Fraud Penalty Against Trump While Upholding Fraud Liability
Elon Musk tweeted, “Europe is dying”
Far-Right Activist Convicted of Incitement Changes Gender and Demands: "Send Me to a Women’s Prison" | The Storm in Germany
Hungary Criticizes Ukraine: "Violating Our Sovereignty"
Will this be the first country to return to negative interest rates?
Child-free hotels spark controversy
North Korea is where this 95-year-old wants to die. South Korea won’t let him go. Is this our ally or a human rights enemy?
Hong Kong Launches Regulatory Regime and Trials for HKD-Backed Stablecoins
China rehearses September 3 Victory Day parade as imagery points to ‘loyal wingman’ FH-97 family presence
Trump Called Viktor Orbán: "Why Are You Using the Veto"
Horror in the Skies: Plane Engine Exploded, Passengers Sent Farewell Messages
MSNBC Rebrands as MS NOW Amid Comcast’s Cable Spin-Off
AI in Policing: Draft One Helps Speed Up Reports but Raises Legal and Ethical Concerns
Shame in Norway: Crown Princess’s Son Accused of Four Rapes
Apple Begins Simultaneous iPhone 17 Production in India and China
A Robot to Give Birth: The Chinese Announcement That Shakes the World
Finnish MP Dies by Suicide in Parliament Building
Outrage in the Tennis World After Jannik Sinner’s Withdrawal Storm
William and Kate Are Moving House – and the New Neighbors Were Evicted
Class Action Lawsuit Against Volkswagen: Steering Wheel Switches Cause Accidents
Taylor Swift on the Way to the Super Bowl? All the Clues Stirring Up Fans
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Apple Expands Social Media Presence in China With RedNote Account Ahead of iPhone 17 Launch
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Cambridge Dictionary Adds 'Skibidi,' 'Delulu,' and 'Tradwife' Amid Surge of Online Slang
Bill Barr Testifies No Evidence Implicated Trump in Epstein Case; DOJ Set to Release Records
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
The CEO Who Replaced 80% of Employees for the AI Revolution: "I Would Do It Again"
Emails Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Character.ai Bets on Future of AI Companionship
China Ramps Up Tax Crackdown on Overseas Investments
Japanese Office Furniture Maker Expands into Bomb Shelter Market
Intel Shares Surge on Possible U.S. Government Investment
Hurricane Erin Threatens U.S. East Coast with Dangerous Surf
EU Blocks Trade Statement Over Digital Rule Dispute
EU Sends Record Aid as Spain Battles Wildfires
JPMorgan Plans New Canary Wharf Tower
Zelenskyy and his allies say they will press Trump on security guarantees
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Escalating Clashes in Serbia as Anti-Government Protests Spread Nationwide
The Drought in Britain and the Strange Request from the Government to Delete Old Emails
Category 5 Hurricane in the Caribbean: 'Catastrophic Storm' with Winds of 255 km/h
"No, Thanks": The Mathematical Genius Who Turned Down 1.5 Billion Dollars from Zuckerberg
The surprising hero, the ugly incident, and the criticism despite victory: "Liverpool’s defense exposed in full"
Digital Humans Move Beyond Sci-Fi: From Virtual DJs to AI Customer Agents
YouTube will start using AI to guess your age. If it’s wrong, you’ll have to prove it
×