UKREiiF

By Michael Hardware, Director of Property & Planning, Chelgate Local

I attended the UK Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum conference in Leeds between 20 and 23 May. Unlike last year, the sun shone, and all was well in the world.

New management

This year’s event, which was organised under new owners Infopro Digital, was larger than last year and attracted over 16,000 visitors – everyone from the property and development interests were there, or so it felt. And so they should have been, with the government pushing for 370,000 homes per year, 1.5million in this parliament, the opportunities were abounding.
There were many areas pavilions and stands selling their wares – I had interesting discussions in Lincolnshire, Hertfordshire and Thames Estuary,

Housing and planning minister

To endorse the government’s commitment to housebuilding, the housing and planning minister, Matthew Pennycook MP, came along and was interviewed by Andrew Taylor, Vistry’s group planning director. The minister wanted to reassure housebuilders that planning reforms will be largely complete by the end of the year. He also said, he expects better in return: “I was told we couldn’t revise the national planning policy framework in six months; we did.

“We overhauled it. We are starting to see in terms of the volume of applications coming through and a different approach to releasing land.

“We are seeing, anecdotally, all across the country, grey belt sites coming forward in key places that will that will really deliver. Those changes were made in quick order.”

He was clear that he considered this was a two-way street: “I say this directly to the developers in the room, in all manner of ways: through a reform of the planning system, we are reducing development costs and risk for you, and we do expect better where it’s not coming through, and it is part of the bargain.”

New Towns Task Force

Following on was Sir Michael Lyons, the chair of the New Towns Task Force, which is looking at where new settlements could be built using development corporation powers to add to the total. He indicated that the new towns programme is likely to be those that are “ready to begin development” and with a “distinct identity.”

Local government reorganisation

Apart from development, the other major topic of discussion was local government reorganisation, the biggest shake-up of local government in 50 years. It involves the creation of regional mayors and combined authorities to deliver specific devolved functions from government, and then the amalgamation of two-tier councils into new larger unitary councils to deliver all council services.

Local government minister, Jim McMahon, speaking to the Local Government Chronicle at UKREiiF, was confident that LGR would be delivered in this parliament. He said LGR and devolution would: “spark building at pace and scale across the country, from unlocking more brownfield and grey belt for development to harnessing our planning reforms to build the houses and the critical infrastructure that we need.

“It’s the blueprint for a new way of governing and growing the economy, of reorganising public services and making politics matter to people in every community, one grounded in place and centred around the people that matter.”

National Planning Barometer

On a final less positive note, the 2025 National Planning Barometer, launched at UKREiiF, surveyed 485 councillors and found that 76 per cent believe the government’s target to deliver 1.5 million homes during this Parliament to be ‘unachievable’.