RICS have issued their latest UK Construction Market Survey, which shows that private housing is slowing; planning delays still seen to be a barrier to growth and RICS are calling on Councils to work together to create ‘emergency planners’ who can help address this issue.
RICS writes:
Despite the Government promising to deliver 200,000 new homes by 2020, our latest UK Construction Market Survey has revealed that growth in the private housing sector slowed down considerably during the first quarter of 2016.
On the surface, it might seem surprising that we are witnessing a slowdown in the construction sector just a few months after hearing the Chancellor’s ‘We Are The Builders’ speech, given the Government’s significant commitment to this sector. One might well ask why growth in private housing workloads is softening at a time when policy is firmly focussed on the creation of new starter homes. We have long held the view that starter homes cannot be the only solution. There is an issue around the availability of land on which new houses can be built, and we would like to see more being done to free up private brownfield sites.
Our survey tells us that planning delays are one of the biggest barriers to growth in the construction sector. We have recommended that councils work together to create a team of emergency planners who can parachute into boroughs that are experiencing significant delays, therefore reducing a major growth barrier.
That said, we cannot discount the climate of uncertainty caused by the forthcoming EU referendum. We know that a range of sectors have been affected by these issues as investors look to delay any decisions until a final outcome has been determined, and construction is no exception.
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View an RTPI response to this report
