John Elliott, Managing Director of Millwood Designer Homes, has decided to share his views and discuss the recent Government claims on house builders land banking in the UK.

He explains that land banking is usually associated “with the claim that house builders deliberately hold onto land after being granted planning permission for commercial benefit or profit, if house prices increase”. However, accusing developers of storing up land is not the right way to tackle the current housing market. Unfortunately, this is exactly what the Government and the Mayor of London have been doing in recent months.

John said that together with Millwood they are always on the lookout for more land in Kent, Sussex and further into Surrey. The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government ordered a review that will look into the gap between planning permissions granted and the number of new homes being built, hoping to find out why more homes are not being delivered.

Even though the Government has planned to increase the supply of new homes over the next few years, John believes that “the starting point for this will be delivering more land with consent in the right places. The South East continues to perform extremely well and more Londoners are exiting the capital and moving to the Home Counties. If this is where people want to live and are areas where demand is currently outweighing supply, the Government need to do more to provide the land for house builders to meet strong buyer demand.”

What he believes is the reason behind this issue is the amount of “conditions that come with the consent as well as utility companies sometimes taking months before they start work, these are typically the primary causes of the delay, which can drag on, in some cases up to 2 years after planning consent is formally granted.”