RICS response to the Labour Party’s announcement on housebuilding

On Friday, Sir Keir Starmer announced further detail into Labour’s housebuilding plans as part of their manifesto for the next General Election. These proposals outline a new set of "golden rules" for development, which include:

• Prioritising already built-on sites
• Building on 'poor quality and ugly' areas
• Ensuring 50% affordable homes
• Boosting infrastructure like GPs and schools
• Enhancing green space

Under these new "golden rules," councils will be required to prioritise building on brownfield sites and poor-quality areas in the green belt, dubbed "grey belt".

We welcome the renewed focus on brownfield development and limited areas of green belt release, particularly to help alleviate housing pressures in urban environments. However, to ensure a holistic response to tackling the housing crisis, this must include a full evidence-led review of the Green Belt, to transparently consider the benefits and trade-offs that apply to its current operation.

In addition, to support this ambition, local authorities and their planning departments will need greater resourcing to adequately meet this challenge. Local councils often do wish to build on brownfield and ‘grey belt’ land; however, these sites are fraught with difficulties, particularly around the decontamination and making-safe of these sites, which are costly endeavours. 

Finally, the provision for 50% of housing development on brownfield or ‘grey belt’ sites to be designated as affordable should also be lauded, however as part of this there should also be provision for other types of housing too, including housing for older people, social rent and owner occupier to ensure that all sections of society are adequately represented.

We will continue call for a comprehensive plan to meet the UK’s housing and infrastructure needs, which we will detail further in a forthcoming report recommending solutions to the UK’s housing crisis. In the meantime, we look forward to the Labour Party providing further detail on their plans for housebuilding and development in the future, particularly it’s definition for ‘grey belt’ land.

For more information or to get involved in RICS’ policy work, contact Senior Public Affairs Officer, Robbie Toomey at rtoomey@rics.org.