The new Labour government wasted little time in confirming their pre-election pledge to “speed up and streamline the planning process to build more homes of all tenures and accelerate the delivery of major infrastructure projects”.
GRM provide a wide range of services to the construction sector including private residential, social housing, healthcare, education, commercial, and industrial developments. We are therefore fully aware and have seen first-hand the challenges that developers face at all stages of a construction project.
The government have promised to bring in new legislation to help resolve some of these challenges and remove obstacles that are often encountered. A briefing document by the Cabinet Office, published following the King’s Speech, said:
“The reforms will help unlock more sites for development, enabling more effective land assembly, and in doing so speeding up housebuilding and delivering more affordable housing, supporting the public interest.” But the briefing document added: “We will only act in legislation where we can confirm to parliament that the steps we are taking will deliver positive environmental outcomes.”
Back on the ‘coalface’, our GRM teams are fully aware that streamlining the planning process and removing challenges that developers typically encounter is easier said than done. New legislation is one thing, but embedding and enforcing this within the construction sector will take time.
Having said that, we are encouraged by the new mindset and will continue to support landowners and developers as the new initiatives come to fruition. Dr Bill Peacock, GRM’s Managing Director, commented:
“I’m very optimistic of this new government, however something else needs to come into play to achieve the levels of housebuilding previously seen in the UK. This may include some form of localisation for building by giving more independence to the regions along the same lines as we saw with devolution”.
If you have any development or construction projects, then please get in touch to find out how we can help save both time and costs. Please use your main point of contact at GRM or for new enquiries email richard.upton@grm-uk.com or call 01283 551249.