Thank you for that kind introduction and good morning, ladies and gentlemen – it is a pleasure to join you here in Leeds. Since its launch four years ago, UKREiiF has gone from strength to strength. It is now a catalyst for significant investment and growth, generating economic activity in every part of the country including this growing and fast, dynamic city, and the wider West Yorkshire region. As a domestic forum...
Thank you for that kind introduction and good morning, ladies and gentlemen – it is a pleasure to join you here in Leeds. Since its launch four years ago, UKREiiF has gone from strength to strength. It is now a catalyst for significant investment and growth, generating economic activity in every part of the country including this growing and fast, dynamic city, and the wider West Yorkshire region. As a domestic forum for discussion, networking and deal making between investors, developers and local authorities looking to shape the future of our towns, cities and regions, it is now unrivalled. And for those looking to attract global capital, and, dare I say it, government ministers whose diaries don’t always lend themselves to intense four-day events in the Mediterranean, it arguably now surpasses its overseas rivals. I want to thank everyone involved in organising this annual event, including the City Council and various partners, for all they have done to make it the success that it is. I’m here at UKREiiF today to discuss what more can be done to secure investment; drive regeneration; and accelerate development in every part of the country. To exchange views about how together, we can tackle the housing crisis, support economic growth and ensure that the real estate, property and infrastructure sectors flourish. And I come with a simple message: this [Political content removed] government arrived in office with a bold and comprehensive plan to build the homes and infrastructure the country needs. We are faithfully executing that plan. It is beginning to bear fruit. And while the headwinds are undoubtedly growing stronger, we are going to stay the course and finish the job. Uninformed critics will no doubt decry my reference to stronger headwinds as an attempt to deflect blame for early falls in housing delivery that I can assure all of you were fully expected and anticipated in opposition. But everyone in this room will know that the very real challenges that the sector has experienced over recent years – rising interest rates, significant increases in building materials costs, and dampened buyer demand – have been exacerbated by the global turbulence of recent months. I want you to know that the Secretary of State and I are acutely aware of the more uncertain environment in which you are now operating. We also appreciate that your present challenges follow a series of housing market downturns, the scars of which your cash reserves, supply chains and project pipelines still bear. Where compatible with our objectives as a government, we remain committed to doing everything we can to reduce development risks and associated transaction costs so that you can get on and build. But it is only together that we can successfully navigate these tumultuous times, working in partnership to create a housing system that is more resilient to economic shocks of the kind produced by the conflict in the Gulf. The case for fundamentally transforming the housing system that we inherited is unarguable. By any metric, it has been an abject failure. As I’ve argued many times, in many different parts of the country: the crisis of housing availability, affordability and quality that that system has produced is blighting lives and hampering economic growth and productivity. That is why, as a government, we set ourselves the task of reforming this failing system root and branch. Over recent days, I’ve listened with some amusement to colleagues claim that we arrived in government underprepared and lacking clarity of vision and direction. When it comes to housing and planning, nothing could be further from the truth. We used every waking moment in opposition to develop a bold and comprehensive plan – one that over the past twenty-two and a half months has allowed us to undertake the most rapid, holistic and radical overhaul of the housing and planning system in decades. Within six months of taking office, you will know that we published a revised National Planning Policy Framework. Through it, we restored and raised mandatory housing targets; strengthened brownfield land policy; and introduced a modernised, strategic approach to Green Belt land designation and release. The Office for Budget Responsibility have estimated that these changes alone will boost GDP by £6.8 billion by 2029/30 and will lead to the highest level of housebuilding in 40 years. In December last year, we built on those initial revisions, publishing for consultation a wholly restructured Framework. This modified NPPF incorporates new clear and rules-based national policies for both plan and decision-making and includes new policies such as a permanent presumption in favour of suitably located development and a “default yes” for suitable proposals that develop land around rail stations. In the same month, our landmark Planning and Infrastructure Act received Royal Assent. This Act is already enabling us to speed up and streamline the delivery of new homes and critical infrastructure, not least by allowing the dismissal of legal challenges to DCOs that are ‘totally without merit’. Once we have switched on the Act in its entirety, including overhauling the consenting process for critical infrastructure; our new Nature Restoration Fund; new mechanisms for cross-boundary strategic planning; and the modernisation of planning committees, we estimate that this single piece of legislation could boost GDP by up to £7.5 billion over the next decade. Having received the final report of the independent New Towns Taskforce in September last year, we launched a public consultation in March on our proposed New Towns Programme. The large-scale new communities that this will create will make a significant contribution to meeting housing need across England and support economic growth by releasing the productive potential of our constrained towns and cities. The programme is an integral part of our plans to boost innovation, quality and competition in housebuilding. Given the critical importance of boosting the supply of social and affordable housing for meeting housing need, sustaining the wider development pipeline and supporting timely build out, we have delivered the biggest boost to grant funding in a generation through our £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme and we’ve given Registered Providers the regulatory certainty and stability they need to quickly ramp up investment in existing and new stock. And that is not all. On arriving in office, we quickly established a New Homes Accelerator that has helped remove blockages and speed up the building of over 130,000 homes across England… We have created a new, permanent National Housing Bank backed by £16 billion of new financial capacity… We are putting in place a new plan-making system and taking concerted action to drive up local plan coverage… We are progressing a range of policy and regulatory easements to help small and medium sized housebuilders thrive and grow and thereby diversify our housebuilding market… We have allocated almost £100 million of investment to support local planning authorities with capacity and capability… We have invested over £600 million in training tens of thousands of new construction workers. We’re reforming the Building Safety Regulator established by the previous government to improve its operations and processes. I could easily go on ladies and gentlemen. My point in reeling off this long list is a simple one: no government in living memory has done more to tackle the country’s housing and infrastructure deficit than the one I am proud to be a member of. While much has been done, there obviously remains much more to do as we strive to hit our incredibly stretching target of 1.5 million new homes in this Parliament. We do need to finalise a range of legislative and policy measures. We have to publish a final, revised NPPF, and we will do so this summer. We have to bring into force our new National Scheme of Delegation, and we will lay the required regulations in the coming weeks. We have to consult on the first of our Environmental Delivery Plans concerning nutrient pollution and we will do so in the coming months. We must reform the role of statutory consultees in the planning system, and we will announce the outcome of our consultation on this matter before the summer recess. Yet, the focus of my Department has now turned very firmly towards ensuring the new system delivers. Among other things that means a renewed emphasis on removing ‘grit’ from the planning process to ensure that the application journey is as fast and easy as possible, and it also means a greater focus on what more we can do to support consented sites that are struggling. Our New Homes Accelerator will play a crucial role in this effort. It has already unblocked and accelerated the delivery of scores of large sites that were encountering significant delays or obstacles – providing planning advice, technical assistance, and brokering across government, including with stat cons. To take just two examples: At Hampden Fields in Buckinghamshire, engagement with the Environment Agency through the NHA enabled all flood risk activity permits to be promptly issued and the first homes are now being occupied. At Langley in the West Midlands, the NHA provided funding for technical support for site design that will enable the project to deliver homes more efficiently. Across the country, the NHA is currently supporting 28 sites, and we’ve expanded the scope of the sites that it can now support. New sites, like Northwest Sittingbourne in Kent and Benthall Grange in Shropshire, are continuously being added and the NHA online portals remain permanently open for any projects that might require support. Homes England, as the government’s principal housing delivery arm, also has a critical role to play in accelerating development and ramping up housing supply. Under the leadership of Pat Ritchie and Amy Rees, it is delivering. In the last financial year, the Agency supported the completion of over 40,000 homes and leveraged £22.6 billion of private sector investment. Under its new regional operating model, it is working more closely than ever with local leaders to support housing delivery including Richard and our partners in the West Midlands who will launch the Birmingham East Mayoral Development Corporation at this event later this morning. The Agency is also integral to the delivery of important initiatives such as our Small Sites Aggregator and building on the pilots in Bristol, Lewisham, and Sheffield, I am pleased today to confirm its national rollout. The initiative will unlock dormant, unviable small brownfield sites and through the forging of new partnerships between the public and private sector will attract investment to use them to build 10,000 social rent homes a year. And to further support communities build new homes and drive innovation, I can announce today that we are working with 23 ambitious local authorities to co-develop a pattern book of standard house designs which we intend to publish by the end of the year. These designs will help unlock economies of scale to support investment in MMC, remove barriers for SME developers, and help local authorities deliver homes on small sites they own. Ladies and gentlemen let me finish by saying this… As a government, we have been clear that we refuse to accept the stagnation and decline that we were bequeathed. As a country we enjoy world leading expertise in engineering, construction, planning, design, finance and project management. We have a well known tendency to downplay our strengths but the quality of some of our placemaking is second to none. We have it in our power, in other words, to lead the world when it comes to urban development and regeneration. And yet our full potential remains unfulfilled. When it comes to housing and infrastructure, unlike [Political content removed], we have been prepared to will the means as well as the ends and to bear the opprobrium of those content with a failing status quo. But getting Britain building again is not in the gift of ministers alone. Much as I wish it were otherwise. It requires every part of industry to play its part. Now we know things are incredibly tough right now. We want you to be frank with us about the challenges you face, and what might be done to help you overcome them. If you share our objectives, we want to support you in any way we can. But we also need your help because it is only together that we can ensure that our country enjoys high and sustainable rates of housebuilding and world class infrastructure provision in the years ahead. And I very much look forward to continuing to work with you all in pursuit of that aim. Thank you for listening.
Speech Brief