Spring rolls gently into summer. Across the month of May, temperatures climb gently upwards. Later evenings begin to show their faces.
In the final weekend, the country settles down for a long weekend. It sits in a pub beer garden, smiting the grey clouds in the distance and wondering what the hell it’s going to do with the kids for yet another half term. The bank holiday, for most, means three days of no emails, or Teams messages. Which is why many of us were surprised to open BBC News and be greeted by a political announcement.
This one was a bit different. It had quite sharp teeth. Or, came wielding a stick. Whichever way you see it.
Penalty fines for developers if building faces delay after receiving planning permission.
Many scrollers of news apps will have glossed over this and gone back to finding anything to do to avoid painting the shed. But those of us in construction might have sat a little straighter up in our seats.
The winds of change
This government has released a steady flow of construction-relating policies into wind. To an industry that, at current, finds itself in turbulent times.
We’ve had action on planning, on skills, on the Building Safety levy, the (delayed) release of the Procurement Act. This latest announcement could be considered a step in the same direction: if you’ve been given permission to build, build. Or pay.
And the crowd goes.. mild
This ruffled some industry feathers. Opinions suggested that this is too simplistic a policy to take into account the complex range of reasons a build might be stalled. Some felt this was the opposite of progress – an additional cost in the long list added to housebuilding over the last few years.
But it is true that Britain is building houses too slowly to be on-track to meet targets – however you feel about the targets, or the reason for the slowdown. EPC data says that 217,911 new homes were completed in England in 2024, compared to the official target of 300,000 per year. That’s something of a shortfall.
But of course – a country, or an economy, isn’t just made on houses.
Housing doesn’t live alone
Build 100 houses, and you don’t just get 100 mortgages. It’s not just 100 working age individuals.
There are certainly some. There are families, and their two-and-a-half children. There are coupes and their beloved, if perhaps a little spoiled, labradors. There are down-sizing retirees. Beyond a hundred mortgages, a hundred homes house babies, bad backs, year six science homework. More homeowners need more schools, hospitals, GP surgeries, cafes, office space. A housing boom needs a supporting boom of the necessary infrastructure.
Every wave makes ripples
It's why the industry watches housing so closely, even if they don’t directly operate in that space. Housing drives wider construction. The whole built environment gets a jolt.
The ONS estimate that every £1 spent on housing construction delivers £2.84 in wider economic output. That includes commercial spaces, infrastructure (we’re not talking motorways, or prisons, here – that’s a different debate), and the services that hold towns together.
And let’s not forget the materials trade – we know that when housing flourishes, so does the distribution pipeline. Between 2022 and 2023, new home completions in England rose by just under 1%, while builders’ merchant sales grew by around 2.3% - even modest improvement has a wider impact.
We’ve been a little bullish about our stance on this. We’re maintaining it. We expect slow recovery across H2 2025.
Keeping an eye on the ball
More homes don’t just mean more bricks. They mean more everything. But we aren’t keeping up.
Take schools. The Department for Education had grand ambitions: 33 new special schools by 2026.But as of Q1 this year, the NAO reported delays across nearly 70% of those projects.
Or hospitals. According to the HSJ, only five of the 40 pledged by 2030 are close to the start line. We’re stuck in a strange place, and the cranes are idle.
This matters because if planning penalties force more homes into the pipeline, faster, the pressure on community infrastructure increases. Unless we’re building those things in tandem, we’re just creating places where people live. We need to keep an eye to the future – one that ensures we aren’t just building homes, but communities.
The industry has found its voice
Reactions to the penalty fines have been, well, mixed.
There are a hundred reasons that a build start might find itself delayed. Planning bottlenecks. Inflation. . Spiralling borrowing costs.
It could be that there’s something here about shared accountability. If planning can be successfully streamlined, and the staff needed are on-site and in-boots, then yes, housebuilding could happen a bit faster. But as with all things, it’s very rarely that easy.
For the wider value chain, who don’t deal in housebuilding so much - manufacturers, consultants, specifiers, this could be one of those buds of growth we’re all looking for. Some movement. Some momentum. Who knows what it might spark.
Here comes the rain again – or, perhaps, the sun
We make great effort to spot a change in the wind. And it seems to us that all of these little breezes are going the same way.
If housing speeds up, the commercial sector will follow, the merchant sector will swell, and the demand for materials will climb. Good news, if you happen to provide them.
We don’t build houses in a vacuum. We build communities.
