Majority of UK suburbs have built no new homes in the last decade

Large parts of suburbs in England and Wales have had no new homes built in the last decade, according to a report published by think tank Centre for Cities. 

According to the report, over a fifth of city neighbourhoods in the UK have had no new houses built since 2011, with just 4% of suburban neighbourhoods supplying 45% of all new homes.

Milton Keynes has had the highest number of new homes built, with 11% of neighbourhoods in Milton Keynes adding more than 25 homes every year since 2011. In contrast, no homes were built at this rate in the suburbs of Oxford or Luton, both of which are expensive places to live with below-average housing growth.

According to the report, to solve the housing crisis, existing suburbs must build more homes. If every neighbourhood built at least four new homes a year since 2011, there would be 446,000 new homes today.

The report also outlines the different barriers that have prevented the increase of housing supply. These include a lack of local incentives for authorities, unpredictable planning permission and boundaries such as the Green Belt.

The authors of the report state that the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) should require cities to allocate some development sites in the existing suburbs and cities should create suburban design guides.

They suggest that the UK could potentially copy recent reforms in California which have legalised ‘granny flats’ and ‘millennial pads’ in back gardens, and they suggest that if the land was regulated through zoning it could prevent the problem of discretionary planning permission which would reduce the risk for builders.

Chief executive at Centre for Cities Andrew Carter said: ‘Our planning rules will not deliver the homes needed to solve the housing crisis. Under the current system, one in five suburban neighbourhoods have built no new homes in the past decade.

‘The government should embrace a complete reform of the system that includes building on the green belt, a flexible zoning system that automatically grants permission for proposals that comply with the local plan, and increasing the use of permitted development rights to build more upward extensions and infill developments’

Photo Credit – Pixabay