"If the government is serious about housing, it must act now to fix the regulatory bottleneck"
MPs are debating the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which has rightly thrust Britain’s housing crisis back into the limelight. The bill includes reforms to speed up planning decisions, unlock green belt sites, and cut legal delays, like handing planning decisions to planning officers, effectively bypassing planning committees (IFG).
It’s a step forward, but the bill alone is not enough. The UK’s population will surge by two million over the next decade – meanwhile, the Labour Party risks falling short of its 1.5 million homes target, with a recent Savills report revealing that the government will fall short by 95,000 new homes a year on average.
Yet housing policy remains fixated on traditional, low-density developments made up of semi-detached and terraced homes. A 2019 review by Inside Housing found that nearly 40% of new-build homes in private developments had four or five bedrooms (Inside Housing). That’s not a realistic solution to an acute shortage.
The only way to close the gap is to build upwards. By tall buildings, I don’t mean just 20-story towers. Even mid-rise developments, six storeys and above, offer huge gains. Multiple families can be housed on a single site. Build quality can be standardised. And crucially, homes can be delivered far faster than sprawling red-brick estates. We need more in London and Manchester, but we should consider smaller towns and cities too.
This isn’t a theory; it’s already working in other countries. Germany, for example, has heavily invested in apartment complexes and now has Europe’s largest housing stock. Meanwhile, high-rise homes make up just 2.7% of the UK’s total (London Assembly).
High-rises are more efficient in every sense. They make better use of limited land, and they integrate well with public transport and utilities, whilst easily supporting energy-efficient technologies like district cooling, as architects are already demonstrating (RIBA). Planning approval for one high-rise can be equivalent to unlocking hundreds of two-storey homes on the same footprint.
Yet, while demand for tall buildings is rising, approval rates are falling (NLA). And many developers are now stuck in limbo due to new Building Safety Regulator (BSR) rules. These safety regulations are important. But delays in the gateway approval process are putting countless viable projects on hold. Through Stanmore’s in-house design consultancy, we’ve spoken to multiple firms that have had their submissions rejected or stalled, not on design, but on bureaucracy.
Beyond the regulatory delays, high-rise housing also suffers from an image problem. Too often, people picture grey, concrete tower blocks from the 1950s, cramped, soulless, and cheaply built. But that perception is decades out of date. Today’s high-rise developments are designed with modern living in mind, green rooftop terraces with sweeping views, generous floor plans, sustainably built, and integrated amenities like gyms, shops, and parking. There’s no quick fix, but public perception can shift, and one way to start is by improving community access to high-rise show homes so people can see the difference for themselves.
Cost is another barrier. Too many high-rise developments are priced out of reach for low- and middle-income families. Yes, construction and maintenance costs play a role, but speculative investments are making it worse. In London alone, over 85,000 homes are owned by overseas buyers, inflating prices beyond local affordability. If high-rises are to be part of the solution, they must be financially accessible, which means both reducing build costs and ensuring new stock serves the communities it’s built for.
If the government is serious about housing, it must act now to fix the regulatory bottleneck. That means introducing a high-rise housing quota for local councils, alongside their existing housing targets. Accelerating safety approvals for compliant designs, without compromising resident protection. And encouraging mid- and high-rise development in regional towns and cities, not just in London.
Glasgow is already moving in this direction by identifying key areas where it would support high-rise developments, making up for its growing population. I’d like to see similar discussions in other towns and cities across the UK.
I’m not claiming that high-rise developments are the silver bullet. Far from it. But we cannot meet the 1.5 million homes goal without a serious shift in building strategy, and that starts by looking up.
The Planning and Infrastructure Bill is a good start. Proposals will help free up land and help contractors to break ground on new projects, regardless of whether it’s a 100-metre glass tower or a red brick detached house. But this must be implemented in tandem with boosting high-rise buildings.
Tall buildings are the biggest opportunity for the government to meet its 1.5 million homes target. But it can only happen with the right regulatory environment to back it.
