Strategic housing investment is another positive step

James Brokenshire has announced £250 million for housing deals, which includes £157 million for infrastructure funding for roads and green spaces.

The money will help deliver a range of projects across the UK, including 10,000 homes on 7 Ministry of Defence sites and more than 1,500 homes at the Queen Elizabeth II Olympic Park.

The Government expects that the infrastructure investment, use of public land and targeted loans will help them build almost 25,000 more homes than the 222,000 that were built in 2017/2018.

The National Federation of Builders (NFB) commends the Government on investing directly in land, infrastructure and housing to unlock homes, but warns that many of the sites will remain locked unless it takes more serious steps toward planning reform.

Many of the sites will require further strong leadership from Homes England, who have been more easily circumventing the planning and financial barriers that non-government partnered developers experience.

Richard Beresford, chief executive of the NFB, said: “We need to build 100,000 more homes every year and this means better road networks and more recreational spaces. This direct and strategic housing investment is very welcome.”

Rico Wojtulewicz, head of housing and planning policy at the House Builders Association, said: “At the heart of the broken housing market is the broken planning process. The Government must fix the barriers non-government partners face because we cannot fix the housing crisis with big and public sector builders getting the easier ride. Planning reform has to benefit the whole industry.”