Leading agency boss tells Tories to stop ‘infighting’ and build more homes

Winkworth boss Dominic Agace has launched an attack on the Government accusing ministers of fighting each other and not delivering more housing.

Ahead of the Conservative party conference, Agace says the Tories should “stop internal battles”, and “focus on building more homes”.

In-fighting has caused housing targets to disappear.”

In the latest episode of Winkworth’s The Property Exchange podcast, Agace says: “In-fighting has caused housing targets to disappear, manifesto pledges of 300,000 homes a year and national planning frameworks have all been watered down.”

Desperately needed

Immediate action is need to “fix the property market”, he says, and calls for three measures to be taken straight away. He says more resources for planning are desperately needed to boost housebuilding.

Make it easier for first time buyers to move on by introducing incentives for downsizers to create a more fluid property market, he recommends. And increase supply in the private rented sector by bringing back mortgage interest relief for landlords.

Attack

In May, Agace, who is CEO at Winkworth, launched an attack on Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer over the party’s housing policies.

He said Labour risks making the housing crisis worse if it doesn’t take action to address the issues of supply and planning reform. “The dangers are already here and it now depends whether a Labour government will exacerbate them,” he said.

Parachuted in

Adam Stackhouse, MD of developments and commercial investments at Winkworth, tells the podcast that a planning enforcement team should be introduced immediately to increase supply.

He says: “A joint team from the private and public sectors could be parachuted into local authorities to fix these problems, with a 90-day turnaround time, to look at planning applications stuck on the shelf.”

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Listen to The Property Exchange podcast here