Planning laws stopped 4m homes from being built, says think tank

A new report by the Centre for Cities claims that planning laws that force every project to be assessed on a case-by-case basis have stopped 4m homes from being built in Britain. The think tank said the UK's planning regime, adopted in 1947, had created an unpredictable system that has stifled house building since the post-war period. Researchers found that Britain has fallen behind the rest of Europe when it comes to house building rates over the last six decades. Analysis shows that in 1955, the UK had 5% more homes per person than the European average, but by 2015 it was 8% below the mean. The charity said that if building in the UK had kept up with the average rate across Europe, there would be 4.3m more homes today.

The Daily Telegraph (21/02/2023)