"If property investors are not convinced planning reform will positively affect their business, we’re in real trouble"
- Rob Stanton - Landbay
Fewer than a quarter of the UK’s landlords believe recent planning reforms will positively affect their businesses.
Polling by specialist buy-to-let (BTL) lender Landbay shows that 77% of property investors think planning changes will not benefit their BTL operations. Only 13% of landlords feel easing planning rules could create more opportunities to purchase new-build properties. Even fewer, 9%, believe reforms might boost jobs and economic growth by increasing demand for rental accommodation and improving occupancy rates.
Rob Stanton, sales and distribution director at Landbay (pictured), said, “If property investors are not convinced planning reform will positively affect their business, we’re in real trouble. Landlords are an important stakeholder in the planning system and the wider housing market, driving the conversion of properties to HMOs, refits and extensions – not to mention a chunk of new-build housing. So this level of scepticism and cynicism surrounding proposed reforms to our planning system is absolutely damning."
“As a country we clearly need planning reform. The Lower Thames Crossing has cost more than a quarter of a billion pounds just in planning and paperwork – not a single spade in the ground. It has cost us more to plan the crossing than it cost Norway to construct the world’s longest tunnel. HS2 is now the world’s most expensive railway line. The planning application to reopen the old 3-mile Portishead railway line is 80,000 pages long – with over 1,000 pages dedicated to bats.”
When asked if planning reform could help solve the housing crisis, nearly half of respondents (47%) said it would not, citing other factors such as the ongoing skills shortage in the construction sector, which prevents building at the necessary pace.
Several landlords highlighted the challenges posed by the skills gap. One said housebuilding targets were “impossible to achieve with the current level of skills available; I own and operate a development company and construction company. The shortage of trades is very limiting.” Another described targets as “unrealistic while insufficient skills are available,” while a third commented, “the government has been setting new homes targets for years – nothing ever changes.”
