EDP letter – Houses with planning permission are not being built

Printed in the Eastern Daily Press (EDP) on Thursday 5th January 2023, Chris Dady from CPRE Norfolk responds to an earlier article that claimed nutrient neutrality was stopping houses being built*

Phil Courtier, Head of Broadland and South Norfolk Councils planning departments, is reported as saying that housing applications are being delayed by the question of “nutrient neutrality”, and that this is a major issue that has stopped thousands of new homes being built in Norfolk preventing growth with a direct impact on the housing crisis.

In our view this is simply not true.

There are already vast numbers of unbuilt housing that have already got planning permission, so clearly if these are not being built then other factors are responsible, such as the cost of borrowing and the cost of living crisis.

Without buyers in quantity developers will not build regardless of the number of planning permissions they have, hence a new raft of consents will not generate an increase in the number of houses under construction.

The slowing down of house building does have a marginal impact on the housing crisis, however the lack of affordable hoses to buy and rent is not related to the current moratorium on permissions.

The issue is directly due the housing model the councils work to, which is based primarily on private developers providing these types of homes, which are only built in small numbers and are often not very affordable or in the right locations.

The only way out of the housing crisis is to restart the building of social affordable housing (council housing) in quantity, not through private developers, and without the right to buy provisions that have decimated the availability of affordable rental housing.

The lack of this socially rented housing has fed the private “buy to let” markets, and the demand for houses as investments has driven housing prices in the entry level sector of the market out of reach of many first-time buyers. It has also forced many lower income renters in accommodation they can ill afford.

Our councils need to devise new ways to provide the housing Norfolk actually needs.

A good start would be getting the many houses with planning permission built as well as directly providing affordable housing, rather than continuing to feed developers land banks and excess profits.

*Ref: Hold up to new homes being built in Norfolk could soon end, EDP Main edition, page 6, 27th December 2022