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Independent house builder calls to end planning ‘quagmire’

Independent house builder calls to fix Yorkshire’s planning ’quagmire’

One of the North’s leading independent house builders has called upon MPs and policy makers to urgently review planning attitudes to enable local builders to share in the current wave of housing market activity.

On the back of the Home Builders Federation report this week, which highlights a variety of issues around planning and financing that are preventing SME builders competing for new sites, Leeds-based Loxley Homes chairman Warren Hill is calling for Yorkshire planning committees to lead the way in championing local house builders.

According to Mr Hill, a simple change of planning culture and encouragement to small builders to challenge the big established players could bring tens of thousands of new homes online faster, and generate thousands of jobs that would directly benefit the regional economy.

“There is a huge barrier to local house builders growing from small sites of two or three houses to build dozens of homes, and they are basically all related to planning red tape,” said Mr Hill.

“Without our other property businesses we would never have been able to afford the significant costs of planning applications, which typically top £200,000 for a site with 100 homes. And even when we have secured planning, despite directives from central Government to streamline the planning process, the raft of post-application conditions that are often attached can stymie development of the site for six months or more.”

Over the past 25 years, the number of SME house builders is believed to have fallen by 80%, with very few new home building businesses starting up over the last decade, following the 2008 financial crisis, and a decade of planning stagnation and increased regulation.

Loxley Homes, which currently has a modest land bank and, with current planning applications for another 350 homes across the North, has sites under development in North and South Yorkshire. The company is one of only a handful of independent house builders that has been able to achieve growth over the last decade. The house builder, which is part of the larger Prospect Property Group, has only succeeded by leveraging investment from its other commercial property divisions to overcome the hurdles that face many smaller house building firms. The firm has also actively sought out partners with which to collaborate on schemes.

“Local jobs and employment are increased when local builders are growing, and we need to create an environment where independent businesses can compete with the larger housebuilders, as the HBF highlighted this week. Working in partnership with other small developers has been a useful strategy for us and it is also something that in our view planners should look to actively encourage.

“The benefits for Yorkshire will be shorter average build times, faster availability of much needed housing stock and more jobs and spending in the locality of the developments,” said Mr Hill.

Tim Dodkin, development director of Prospect Property Group, added: “Fifteen years ago we would typically be on site building within four weeks of a successful application. Now, red tape, which doesn’t add any real safeguard to the quality of the sites or build, drags the process out for six months or more, and significantly adds to the costs of planning too,” he added. “Every housebuilder needs a landbank for continuity but we cannot afford to sit on huge swathes of land. What we have approved for planning is built.”

Mr Hill concluded: “If MPs and councilors grasp the nettle and try to facilitate faster applications, the region’s home buyers, and SME builders will benefit. They should also encourage small builders to join forces and share the risk and cost of applications, clubbing together to take on bigger sites that always bring larger planning costs.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Emma Kilmurray .