Countryside blames UK election doubts for planning delays

Falling planning consent approvals in the run-up to the general election are hampering efforts to ease Britain's housing crisis, Countryside has warned.

In half-year results published on Tuesday, the privately owned housebuilder announced plans to double output to up to 4,000 units a year to take advantage of a shortage of mid-market family homes.

The company built 949 homes in the half year to the end of March, up 18 per cent on the same period last time, as part of its efforts to join the ranks of Britain's biggest developers. Revenue rose 58 per cent to £252m and forward orders soared by 86 per cent to a record £197m as the recovering UK economy underpinned a surge in consumer confidence.

But Countryside said it had experienced a slowdown in planning consent approvals compared with last year, with a particular decline in the past two months. It attributed this to authorities deferring decisions ahead of the May 7 election.

"It's deeply frustrating," said Ian Sutcliffe, chief executive. "Housing policy has to be geared towards longer goals. It cannot be treated as a political football at local level."

Plots with deliverable planning consent stand at 12,753, compared with 14,218 at the end of last year. Mr Sutcliffe said delays had been expected, but what had been particularly disappointing were hold-ups on sites that already had planning officer support.

Last week Jeff Fairburn, chief executive of the housebuilder Persimmon, warned that the election was stalling development as it became more difficult to secure planning permission for sites.

Jitters around the election and its impact on the housebuilding sector have started to weigh on investors. Shares in two of the UK's three largest listed housebuilders on Monday retreated from record highs. The stock market tremors were attributed to Labour's plans to give greater rights over new homes to people who had lived in the area for more than three years.

Barratt Developments and Taylor Wimpey were among the biggest losers on the FTSE 100, closing down by 0.74 and 0.47 per cent respectively. Persimmon was up 0.06 per cent.

Knight Frank released a survey on Monday revealing that more than two-thirds of UK housebuilders believed that delivering 180,000 new homes a year was "unachievable" under current market conditions, despite ambitious pledges made across the political spectrum.

Mr Sutcliffe said: "Annual demand for new homes in the UK stands at around 240,000 units, a figure which will be difficult to reach for some years. And one crucial way of alleviating the shortage would be helping housebuilders access a more timely planning process."

Countryside, which focuses on London, the southeast commuter belt and the northwest, concentrates on developments in the £250,000 to £500,000 price range. The average selling price of its homes is £345,000.

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