Spring Statement - Reflections from the Planning Sector

Commenting on today’s Spring Statement, Lawrence Turner, Director of Boyer said:

Today's Spring Statement quietly admits something the housebuilding industry already knows: there will be a slowdown before things get better.

The OBR expects housing delivery to fall to around 220,000 homes in 2026/27 before rising to just over 305,000 by the end of the decade. This demonstrates that last year's planning reforms won’t have an instant impact. Translating these reforms into new local plans, permissions, and homes on the ground takes time. However, it is encouraging to see that the OBR's economic growth projections now assume that more homes will actually be built, with residential investment forecast to rise steadily towards 2030 because of planning changes.

However, planning reform is only part of the story. Developers can only build at the pace homes can be sold. Transactions rose by nearly 11% in 2025 to 1.2 million, which is encouraging, but house price growth is expected to remain fairly modest. There’s also a practical challenge. Local authority borrowing has risen sharply in recent years, highlighting the financial pressure councils are under. Those same councils are expected to process planning applications faster and update their Local Plans more quickly. Reform on paper is one thing, delivering it at local level is another.

Overall, the OBR’s direction of travel is positive, but the figures show that planning reform is not a quick fix. If the Government is serious about delivering 300,000 homes a year, it will require properly resourced local authorities and a stable housing market over several years