Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove has announced plans for greater development on brownfield sites, and increasing pressure on local councils to build new homes.

The minister is calling on every council in England to prioritise housebuilding on brownfield sites to enable younger people, in particular, to get onto the property ladder.

UK housebuilders interviewed on BBC Radio 4s Today programme broadly welcomed the plans but pointed out that clean up costs for brownfield sites as well as the integrity of speeded up planning consultation would bring new challenges.

Commenting on the latest plans, ASK Partners chief executive and co-founder Daniel Austin said that with an election on the immediate horizon both political parties are making promises to fix the planning system, but with political agendas becoming ever more populist, the question is whether either party can come up with plans that will genuinely accelerate growth without losing them votes.

“This is the exact reason why central and local government should not be involved in the planning process at all as they cannot be impartial in controversial decisions which have a major impact on their electorate”.

Austin pointed out that an often overlooked and relatively new aspect of the potential for housebuilding growth in the UK is adaptive reuse.

“This process, which involves repurposing existing structures for new functions has become a popular development strategy since the Covid pandemic, with developers actively seeking out those assets which will benefit from being re-positioned to take advantage of the shift in occupier demand, such as office to residential conversions”.

He added: “These projects are easier to obtain financing for as loans can be secured against a fixed asset rather than a piece of land. Construction risks are reduced and critically in an inflationary environment, costs are also lower.  It is also a more sustainable approach, emitting less carbon than demolition or ground up development. Crucially, it can skirt planning hurdles altogether. In some cases, conversions can be carried out under permitted development rules.

“Permitted development projects are not always possible but where full planning permission is required, conversions of existing buildings are far less likely to receive local objections.

Austin concluded: “Locals tend to be in favour of breathing new life into unattractive disused buildings and boarded up shops to bring back a vibrancy to the local area and economy”.