The Strait of Hormuz: Conflict and the impact of the UK construction material supply chain
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Planning needs urgent attention
17/11/25
10 min
Private Credit
Insight
As we count down the days to the Autumn Budget, speculation about what the Chancellor Rachel Reeves will do next is heating up.
Among widely speculated measures – including possible raids on pension pots, ISA allowances, changes to capital gains tax and the ever-threatened inheritance tax stealth rises – all fuelled by Reeves’ pre-Budget speech, are several policies that could impact the housing market.
Reportedly, the Treasury is looking at a new tax on homes worth over £500,000 and scrapping the capital gains tax exemption of the sale of primary residences above £1.5million.1 Council tax tinkering and stamp duty review are also on the table.
In response to an article in the Guardian suggesting the rumours had put a stop on housing transactions until 26 November,2 a Treasury spokesperson said: “We are taking action to get Britain building so more new homes are available, including through strengthening call-in powers, tearing up burdensome regulations, and streamlining planning permissions with AI to get spades in the ground more quickly.”
Planning complexity, along with land scarcity and funding gaps, are three of the biggest challenges SME developers face.
An economic powerhouse
Dealing with the planning system must be the priority. While there is undoubted pressure on the government to raise tax revenue quickly, the Chancellor must not neglect growth.
.jpg)
The housing market is the UK’s economic powerhouse, with every new home build creating jobs, consumer spending and, critically, higher GDP.
In its March forecasts, the Office for Budget Responsibility said planning reforms in the revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) would increase net additions by 170,000 and GDP by 0.2% by 2029-30.3
The challenges
This does not go far enough. As it stands, the planning process and system is strangling development and, even with proposed reforms going ahead, the market is unlikely to see meaningful improvement. There are numerous, specific pain points. Woefully under-resourced planning departments, woefully under-skilled planners and a maddening lack of consistency across different local authorities.
According to the Home Builders Federation chief executive Neil Jefferson, the lack of standardisation in the drafting of Section 106 contracts is crippling growth.4
The trade body’s analysis shows more than three quarters of local authorities currently report that Section 106 negotiations take more than a year to reach agreement. The cost this incurs before any development is even approved can be eyewatering for the biggest housing developers. For small and medium-sized developers it can break the deal before it’s even off the ground.
The lack of planning resources is exacerbating this, with HBF evidence showing that delays in responses from statutory consultees is holding development up further. For example, research showing technical submission to approval for new highways can take two to 103 weeks, and formal adoption can take anywhere from four to 286 weeks. That is five and a half years.
What's not working
The HBF’s October research also articulates the frustrations that we and the developers we work with know only too well, highlighting:
- The additional cost and delays in securing planning permission due to local planning authority capacity constraints, bureaucracy and complexity within the system.
- Challenges and delays and exorbitant costs associated with meeting Biodiversity Net Gain requirements, particularly when local demands exceed national policy.
- Thousands of pounds of additional cost per home as a result of the Building Safety Levy, regardless of height and despite industry having already made building safety commitments worth around £6billion, and £2.6billion of the existing Building Safety Fund currently being unallocated.
- Delays within the Building Safety Regulator with almost 10,000 homes stuck in the Gateway Two process for more than six months as of mid-2025.
- A lack of Registered Providers in the market for Section 106 Affordable Housing.
- Nutrient neutrality requiring expensive strategic mitigation schemes or land for offsetting.
- Almost 30,000 new homes currently being blocked, including 7,000 affordable homes, due to inconsistencies in wastewater application.
- The Planning and Infrastructure Bill enabling LPAs to recover application costs through higher fees, which the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government admits could disproportionately impact SME developers by significantly increasing the cost of minor applications.
Planning application costs are too high
The reality is that in the UK, it is incredibly hard to build new homes. It requires anything between 10 and 25 consultants to undertake reports to assess suitability before the development can even be considered.
That is a huge up-front cost for the developer to foot, especially with no guarantee that a site will get the go ahead. This only serves to make the planning approval process even more painful.
Delays are dire
It’s not uncommon for it to take up to six months just to have a planning officer appointed to review applications.
Mandatory Building Safety Act compliance means high risk developments must wait for this before starting the Gateway process.
Despite the government promising to usher applications through in five months maximum, we’ve seen some developments held up for 18 months in this process.
NPPF reform must go further
If the government really wants to boost housebuilding it has to address some of these challenges.
As a start, the number of consultancy reports required upfront needs to be reduced. At the moment, a developer building four homes needs to go through broadly the same process as one planning to build 500 homes. We need fixed standards for developments, cut by size.
.jpg)
We need more planning officers and authorities who actually understand housebuilding – amazingly, there are a lot of individuals responsible for granting approval who simply don’t have the requisite skills or knowledge. Quicker decisions are needed, rather than lengthy committee reviews and meetings.
In short, planning needs to be proportionate. If we could fix one thing on 26 November, this would be it.
1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2k1m56xgjo
2 https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/oct/20/housing-market-slows-reeves-increase-property-tax
Share
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Reeves must standardise rules across local planning authorities, invest in skills and make planning proportionate.
As we count down the days to the Autumn Budget, speculation about what the Chancellor Rachel Reeves will do next is heating up.
Among widely speculated measures – including possible raids on pension pots, ISA allowances, changes to capital gains tax and the ever-threatened inheritance tax stealth rises – all fuelled by Reeves’ pre-Budget speech, are several policies that could impact the housing market.
Reportedly, the Treasury is looking at a new tax on homes worth over £500,000 and scrapping the capital gains tax exemption of the sale of primary residences above £1.5million.1 Council tax tinkering and stamp duty review are also on the table.
In response to an article in the Guardian suggesting the rumours had put a stop on housing transactions until 26 November,2 a Treasury spokesperson said: “We are taking action to get Britain building so more new homes are available, including through strengthening call-in powers, tearing up burdensome regulations, and streamlining planning permissions with AI to get spades in the ground more quickly.”
Planning complexity, along with land scarcity and funding gaps, are three of the biggest challenges SME developers face.
An economic powerhouse
Dealing with the planning system must be the priority. While there is undoubted pressure on the government to raise tax revenue quickly, the Chancellor must not neglect growth.
The housing market is the UK’s economic powerhouse, with every new home build creating jobs, consumer spending and, critically, higher GDP.
In its March forecasts, the Office for Budget Responsibility said planning reforms in the revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) would increase net additions by 170,000 and GDP by 0.2% by 2029-30.3
The challenges
This does not go far enough. As it stands, the planning process and system is strangling development and, even with proposed reforms going ahead, the market is unlikely to see meaningful improvement. There are numerous, specific pain points. Woefully under-resourced planning departments, woefully under-skilled planners and a maddening lack of consistency across different local authorities.
According to the Home Builders Federation chief executive Neil Jefferson, the lack of standardisation in the drafting of Section 106 contracts is crippling growth.4
The trade body’s analysis shows more than three quarters of local authorities currently report that Section 106 negotiations take more than a year to reach agreement. The cost this incurs before any development is even approved can be eyewatering for the biggest housing developers. For small and medium-sized developers it can break the deal before it’s even off the ground.
The lack of planning resources is exacerbating this, with HBF evidence showing that delays in responses from statutory consultees is holding development up further. For example, research showing technical submission to approval for new highways can take two to 103 weeks, and formal adoption can take anywhere from four to 286 weeks. That is five and a half years.
What's not working
The HBF’s October research also articulates the frustrations that we and the developers we work with know only too well, highlighting:
- The additional cost and delays in securing planning permission due to local planning authority capacity constraints, bureaucracy and complexity within the system.
- Challenges and delays and exorbitant costs associated with meeting Biodiversity Net Gain requirements, particularly when local demands exceed national policy.
- Thousands of pounds of additional cost per home as a result of the Building Safety Levy, regardless of height and despite industry having already made building safety commitments worth around £6billion, and £2.6billion of the existing Building Safety Fund currently being unallocated.
- Delays within the Building Safety Regulator with almost 10,000 homes stuck in the Gateway Two process for more than six months as of mid-2025.
- A lack of Registered Providers in the market for Section 106 Affordable Housing.
- Nutrient neutrality requiring expensive strategic mitigation schemes or land for offsetting.
- Almost 30,000 new homes currently being blocked, including 7,000 affordable homes, due to inconsistencies in wastewater application.
- The Planning and Infrastructure Bill enabling LPAs to recover application costs through higher fees, which the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government admits could disproportionately impact SME developers by significantly increasing the cost of minor applications.
Planning application costs are too high
The reality is that in the UK, it is incredibly hard to build new homes. It requires anything between 10 and 25 consultants to undertake reports to assess suitability before the development can even be considered.
That is a huge up-front cost for the developer to foot, especially with no guarantee that a site will get the go ahead. This only serves to make the planning approval process even more painful.
Delays are dire
It’s not uncommon for it to take up to six months just to have a planning officer appointed to review applications.
Mandatory Building Safety Act compliance means high risk developments must wait for this before starting the Gateway process.
Despite the government promising to usher applications through in five months maximum, we’ve seen some developments held up for 18 months in this process.
NPPF reform must go further
If the government really wants to boost housebuilding it has to address some of these challenges.
As a start, the number of consultancy reports required upfront needs to be reduced. At the moment, a developer building four homes needs to go through broadly the same process as one planning to build 500 homes. We need fixed standards for developments, cut by size.
We need more planning officers and authorities who actually understand housebuilding – amazingly, there are a lot of individuals responsible for granting approval who simply don’t have the requisite skills or knowledge. Quicker decisions are needed, rather than lengthy committee reviews and meetings.
In short, planning needs to be proportionate. If we could fix one thing on 26 November, this would be it.
1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2k1m56xgjo
2 https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/oct/20/housing-market-slows-reeves-increase-property-tax
Share
Reeves must standardise rules across local planning authorities, invest in skills and make planning proportionate.
As we count down the days to the Autumn Budget, speculation about what the Chancellor Rachel Reeves will do next is heating up.
Among widely speculated measures – including possible raids on pension pots, ISA allowances, changes to capital gains tax and the ever-threatened inheritance tax stealth rises – all fuelled by Reeves’ pre-Budget speech, are several policies that could impact the housing market.
Reportedly, the Treasury is looking at a new tax on homes worth over £500,000 and scrapping the capital gains tax exemption of the sale of primary residences above £1.5million.1 Council tax tinkering and stamp duty review are also on the table.
In response to an article in the Guardian suggesting the rumours had put a stop on housing transactions until 26 November,2 a Treasury spokesperson said: “We are taking action to get Britain building so more new homes are available, including through strengthening call-in powers, tearing up burdensome regulations, and streamlining planning permissions with AI to get spades in the ground more quickly.”
Planning complexity, along with land scarcity and funding gaps, are three of the biggest challenges SME developers face.
An economic powerhouse
Dealing with the planning system must be the priority. While there is undoubted pressure on the government to raise tax revenue quickly, the Chancellor must not neglect growth.
The housing market is the UK’s economic powerhouse, with every new home build creating jobs, consumer spending and, critically, higher GDP.
In its March forecasts, the Office for Budget Responsibility said planning reforms in the revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) would increase net additions by 170,000 and GDP by 0.2% by 2029-30.3
The challenges
This does not go far enough. As it stands, the planning process and system is strangling development and, even with proposed reforms going ahead, the market is unlikely to see meaningful improvement. There are numerous, specific pain points. Woefully under-resourced planning departments, woefully under-skilled planners and a maddening lack of consistency across different local authorities.
According to the Home Builders Federation chief executive Neil Jefferson, the lack of standardisation in the drafting of Section 106 contracts is crippling growth.4
The trade body’s analysis shows more than three quarters of local authorities currently report that Section 106 negotiations take more than a year to reach agreement. The cost this incurs before any development is even approved can be eyewatering for the biggest housing developers. For small and medium-sized developers it can break the deal before it’s even off the ground.
The lack of planning resources is exacerbating this, with HBF evidence showing that delays in responses from statutory consultees is holding development up further. For example, research showing technical submission to approval for new highways can take two to 103 weeks, and formal adoption can take anywhere from four to 286 weeks. That is five and a half years.
What's not working
The HBF’s October research also articulates the frustrations that we and the developers we work with know only too well, highlighting:
- The additional cost and delays in securing planning permission due to local planning authority capacity constraints, bureaucracy and complexity within the system.
- Challenges and delays and exorbitant costs associated with meeting Biodiversity Net Gain requirements, particularly when local demands exceed national policy.
- Thousands of pounds of additional cost per home as a result of the Building Safety Levy, regardless of height and despite industry having already made building safety commitments worth around £6billion, and £2.6billion of the existing Building Safety Fund currently being unallocated.
- Delays within the Building Safety Regulator with almost 10,000 homes stuck in the Gateway Two process for more than six months as of mid-2025.
- A lack of Registered Providers in the market for Section 106 Affordable Housing.
- Nutrient neutrality requiring expensive strategic mitigation schemes or land for offsetting.
- Almost 30,000 new homes currently being blocked, including 7,000 affordable homes, due to inconsistencies in wastewater application.
- The Planning and Infrastructure Bill enabling LPAs to recover application costs through higher fees, which the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government admits could disproportionately impact SME developers by significantly increasing the cost of minor applications.
Planning application costs are too high
The reality is that in the UK, it is incredibly hard to build new homes. It requires anything between 10 and 25 consultants to undertake reports to assess suitability before the development can even be considered.
That is a huge up-front cost for the developer to foot, especially with no guarantee that a site will get the go ahead. This only serves to make the planning approval process even more painful.
Delays are dire
It’s not uncommon for it to take up to six months just to have a planning officer appointed to review applications.
Mandatory Building Safety Act compliance means high risk developments must wait for this before starting the Gateway process.
Despite the government promising to usher applications through in five months maximum, we’ve seen some developments held up for 18 months in this process.
NPPF reform must go further
If the government really wants to boost housebuilding it has to address some of these challenges.
As a start, the number of consultancy reports required upfront needs to be reduced. At the moment, a developer building four homes needs to go through broadly the same process as one planning to build 500 homes. We need fixed standards for developments, cut by size.
We need more planning officers and authorities who actually understand housebuilding – amazingly, there are a lot of individuals responsible for granting approval who simply don’t have the requisite skills or knowledge. Quicker decisions are needed, rather than lengthy committee reviews and meetings.
In short, planning needs to be proportionate. If we could fix one thing on 26 November, this would be it.
1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2k1m56xgjo
2 https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/oct/20/housing-market-slows-reeves-increase-property-tax
Share
As we count down the days to the Autumn Budget, speculation about what the Chancellor Rachel Reeves will do next is heating up.
Among widely speculated measures – including possible raids on pension pots, ISA allowances, changes to capital gains tax and the ever-threatened inheritance tax stealth rises – all fuelled by Reeves’ pre-Budget speech, are several policies that could impact the housing market.
Reportedly, the Treasury is looking at a new tax on homes worth over £500,000 and scrapping the capital gains tax exemption of the sale of primary residences above £1.5million.1 Council tax tinkering and stamp duty review are also on the table.
In response to an article in the Guardian suggesting the rumours had put a stop on housing transactions until 26 November,2 a Treasury spokesperson said: “We are taking action to get Britain building so more new homes are available, including through strengthening call-in powers, tearing up burdensome regulations, and streamlining planning permissions with AI to get spades in the ground more quickly.”
Planning complexity, along with land scarcity and funding gaps, are three of the biggest challenges SME developers face.
An economic powerhouse
Dealing with the planning system must be the priority. While there is undoubted pressure on the government to raise tax revenue quickly, the Chancellor must not neglect growth.
The housing market is the UK’s economic powerhouse, with every new home build creating jobs, consumer spending and, critically, higher GDP.
In its March forecasts, the Office for Budget Responsibility said planning reforms in the revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) would increase net additions by 170,000 and GDP by 0.2% by 2029-30.3
The challenges
This does not go far enough. As it stands, the planning process and system is strangling development and, even with proposed reforms going ahead, the market is unlikely to see meaningful improvement. There are numerous, specific pain points. Woefully under-resourced planning departments, woefully under-skilled planners and a maddening lack of consistency across different local authorities.
According to the Home Builders Federation chief executive Neil Jefferson, the lack of standardisation in the drafting of Section 106 contracts is crippling growth.4
The trade body’s analysis shows more than three quarters of local authorities currently report that Section 106 negotiations take more than a year to reach agreement. The cost this incurs before any development is even approved can be eyewatering for the biggest housing developers. For small and medium-sized developers it can break the deal before it’s even off the ground.
The lack of planning resources is exacerbating this, with HBF evidence showing that delays in responses from statutory consultees is holding development up further. For example, research showing technical submission to approval for new highways can take two to 103 weeks, and formal adoption can take anywhere from four to 286 weeks. That is five and a half years.
What's not working
The HBF’s October research also articulates the frustrations that we and the developers we work with know only too well, highlighting:
- The additional cost and delays in securing planning permission due to local planning authority capacity constraints, bureaucracy and complexity within the system.
- Challenges and delays and exorbitant costs associated with meeting Biodiversity Net Gain requirements, particularly when local demands exceed national policy.
- Thousands of pounds of additional cost per home as a result of the Building Safety Levy, regardless of height and despite industry having already made building safety commitments worth around £6billion, and £2.6billion of the existing Building Safety Fund currently being unallocated.
- Delays within the Building Safety Regulator with almost 10,000 homes stuck in the Gateway Two process for more than six months as of mid-2025.
- A lack of Registered Providers in the market for Section 106 Affordable Housing.
- Nutrient neutrality requiring expensive strategic mitigation schemes or land for offsetting.
- Almost 30,000 new homes currently being blocked, including 7,000 affordable homes, due to inconsistencies in wastewater application.
- The Planning and Infrastructure Bill enabling LPAs to recover application costs through higher fees, which the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government admits could disproportionately impact SME developers by significantly increasing the cost of minor applications.
Planning application costs are too high
The reality is that in the UK, it is incredibly hard to build new homes. It requires anything between 10 and 25 consultants to undertake reports to assess suitability before the development can even be considered.
That is a huge up-front cost for the developer to foot, especially with no guarantee that a site will get the go ahead. This only serves to make the planning approval process even more painful.
Delays are dire
It’s not uncommon for it to take up to six months just to have a planning officer appointed to review applications.
Mandatory Building Safety Act compliance means high risk developments must wait for this before starting the Gateway process.
Despite the government promising to usher applications through in five months maximum, we’ve seen some developments held up for 18 months in this process.
NPPF reform must go further
If the government really wants to boost housebuilding it has to address some of these challenges.
As a start, the number of consultancy reports required upfront needs to be reduced. At the moment, a developer building four homes needs to go through broadly the same process as one planning to build 500 homes. We need fixed standards for developments, cut by size.
We need more planning officers and authorities who actually understand housebuilding – amazingly, there are a lot of individuals responsible for granting approval who simply don’t have the requisite skills or knowledge. Quicker decisions are needed, rather than lengthy committee reviews and meetings.
In short, planning needs to be proportionate. If we could fix one thing on 26 November, this would be it.
1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2k1m56xgjo
2 https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/oct/20/housing-market-slows-reeves-increase-property-tax
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