IPPR - Revealed: 1.4 million homes left unbuilt by developers since 2007

18th February 2025

A new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research into England's planning system finds that the government will have to tackle unproductive land speculation and ramp up strategic planning capability if it wants to meet its housebuilding targets.

While many blame the planning system, significant non-planning related barriers exist in the delivery of house building, such as developers slowing their build rates or securing permission and then not building.

Additionally, the failure to join up key infrastructure projects for development is also slowing the delivery of new homes and economic growth.

New analysis by the think tank finds that developers have secured planning permission for over 1.4 million homes since 2007 but have not gone on to build them. Common reasons for this include developers wanting to increase the land's value before selling it on and land banking to slow building rates and maintain high house prices.

Contrary to the framing about ‘ripping up the red tape to get Britain building’, the think tank says this is the wrong approach. The new report states that the planning system is crucial for the government to achieve its ambitious plan to build 1.5 million new homes by the end of the current parliament.

Rather than removing planning regulations, and succumbing to the ‘builders v blockers’ debate, IPPR recommends strengthening the planning system, to support the delivery of house building while also supporting the government’s missions to restore nature, generate clean energy and build other crucial infrastructure.

Part of this will involve increasing capacity and funding for local planning teams, who have been increasingly strained since the austerity years. But it also involves national and regional strategic policies. The think tank recommends:

Exploring new laws to force developers to build within a certain time frame of securing planning permission, or face sanctions
Creating a new Cabinet Office team to produce a national spatial strategy to oversee land use
Tackling blockers to development at source by ensuring monitoring and enforcement is appropriately resourced
Dr Maya Singer Hobbs, senior research fellow at IPPR, said:

"The government doesn’t need to rip up the planning system to build 1.5 million new homes. Many of the blockers to housing and infrastructure delivery are not planning related. Reasons include water shortages, private developers slowing delivery to maintain profits, and a lack of strategic oversight of large infrastructure projects.

"Market driven house-building is broken, and won’t deliver the 1.5 million homes the government has promised.

“Years of deregulation and cuts to organisations like the Environment Agency means the planning system now operates as the last bastion of defence against bad design, nature degradation, pollution and over extraction of our waterways. We must support local, regional and national planners to do their job.

“This is not about pitting NIMBYs against YIMBYs, it is about ensuring the government achieves its ambitious targets whilst also maintaining local support and high quality."

The IPPR paper will be published here: https://www.ippr.org/articles/strategic-planning-for-green-prosperity