Planning delays stifle new housing

A lack of resources within planning departments is one of the biggest reasons for the chronic housing shortages in this country, according to Linea Homes. The niche housebuilder reports that the vast majority of planning applications are being delayed by six months or more owing to what it claims is a shortage of staff and inefficient processes within local planning departments. It is estimated that around 250,000 new homes need to be built in the UK annually to help address the growing supply-demand imbalance in the market, but housebuilders will continue to fail to meet that target year-on-year owing to severe delays with planning applications that could be avoided, Gavin Sherman, Co-Owner of Linea Homes, has said. He commented, “We are not alone in experiencing severe delays with our planning applications that are complete with professional reports and are policy compliant. Local authorities are so under resourced that they simply can’t acknowledge and administer the number of applications they are receiving. Some officers only work two days a week, which makes it impossible for them to deal with the workload they are given.” A recent report compiled by the British Property Federation and GL Hearn, a property consultancy, supported Sherman’s…