Five anti-supply measures Government should reform to deliver 1.5 million new homes target

Centre for Cities identifies five anti-supply measures that it encourages Government to reform so cities can deliver their share of England’s national target to build 1.5 million new homes.

A new briefing, Breaking the bottlenecks: Reforming ‘anti-supply measures’ to support urban housebuilding sets out how the five measures would improve the supply of new housing everywhere, particularly in and around large cities, and allow more first-time-buyers onto the housing ladder at little or no added cost to developers and Government.

Centre for Cities proposes reform in five areas:

1. Reduce the minimum one-person space standard from 37m² by bringing it in line with international comparators such as Japan (25m²) or the Netherlands (18m²). Lower space standards would mostly benefit single first-time-buyers and renters.
2. Allow the installation of air conditioning as a means to comply with building regulations on tackling overheating and relax or remove the London Housing Design Standards requirement to “maximise” dual aspect.
3. Revisit the dual staircase requirement for all buildings above 18 metres in the upcoming review of the statutory definition of higher-risk residential buildings. Reform could bring single-staircase height limits back in line with the Government’s originally consulted proposal (30 metres), or international comparisons such as France (50 metres).
4. Reduce the number of planning applications required to pass through Gateways 2 and 3 of the Building Safety Regulator’s building controls or transfer responsibility for these stages to local level. At the start of 2025, over 800 schemes were in a queue to pass through Gateways 2 and 3.
5. Decrease the prices for contributions in the Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) credit system and allow for more exemptions for developments on brownfield sites, or remove the BNG requirement except for greenfield sites allocated in local plans and in New Towns.

Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, says: “Government has made great strides on planning reform which will increase housebuilding , especially in the shires.

“Accelerating housebuilding in big cities will be more difficult but is essential if the Government is to reach its target of 1.5 million new homes.

“We’ve identified five clear areas where planning considerations and stipulations on builders limit the scale and pace of development on many suitable sites in cities. There are safe and practical workarounds available and if implemented could boost the economic growth outcomes of the planning reform agenda.”