On 25 June the government published Sir Oliver Letwin's draft analysis of
the cause of the gap between housing completions and the amount of
land allocated and granted planning permission for housing.
Sir Oliver Letwin, was tasked with looking into why there is a
lengthy time gap between planning permission and completions and
his latest report finds that the median build-out time period for
these sites was 15 and a half years, with a median 6.5% of the site
built out each year. He further finds that the rate of build out
and "absorption" by the local housing market could be increased
significantly by increasing the variety of homes on large sites in
size, tenure and design.
The Review also considered a number of other potential
constraints on build-out rates, concluding that the only factor
needing urgent action is the shortage of bricklayers and his report
urges the government to find ways to train 15,000 additional
bricklayers over the next 5 years.
ARCH Policy Adviser, Matthew Warburton, has produced an ARCH Briefing Paper for ARCH member
councils on the findings of the Letwin Report.