All the media stories about new homes being a top priority for Andy Burnham are very welcome. But they jump the gun in two vital regards, each of which will prove to be fatal.
First there is no readily understood by local residents mechanism for deciding where the new homes will be built. Until this mechanism is in place local support will be withheld. And without local support the pipeline of new supply will be too long and too small. Local residents fear local change near them. The way to remove this fear is with trusted information which sets out how new building locations will be selected now and in the long term. The current call for site s system is so crazy that most people do not know it exists. Nor do most journalists understand it, and the malign consequences. Decades of building location choices are not chosen by their councils but are the result of a haphazard system that has zero to do with their community’s wishes. Land owners naturally decide if and when to promote their land, or their urban property ownerships for new building according to their commercial needs, not according to their local areas needs. This is commercial common sense and how the capitalist system is intended to work. But as a means of deciding where to build at scale it is advanced spatial madness. Put bluntly the call for sites system must be abolished as soon as possible, and definitely by the end of the current local plan.
Owners who can prove that as a result their land or old buildings have fallen in value, in other words their hope value is reduced, must be fully and generously compensated. In fact, if the policy change is introduced now, whilst hope values are low or zero, ie. on the day before that policy change is announced, due to the collapse in the housing market hope clues will be very low. So timing will be perfect from a national best interest point of view.
The second fatal oversight is that no-one with an iota of commercial sense will take any of these new supply aspirations seriously, most of all substantial investors, unless there is clear cross-party support for the changes. Without cross-party support for policies to increase new homes supply the main players, ie. land and property owners will revert to form. They will hibernate through fear until a new, less draconian government comes to power. And the game of generational musical chairs will go back into action once again. Yes, Kemi Badinock has shown willingness to listen which is good. But there is no evidence of this sort of constructive dialogue from the other political leaders. So my advice to land and property owners will be, once again sadly, is sit tight and wait for the inevitable policy change after the next election.And if you do receive a compulsory purchase order appoint a top team without delay.
How is it possible that these fatal flaws are ignored time and time again?
Ian Campbell
25 August 2026
