This week’s news that outline permission has been granted for 870 homes in Peterborough should feel like a win and a step in the right direction. It’s proof that, slowly, progress is being made.
But let’s not pretend this is how things should work. These homes, part of a wider 2,000-home plan, were first submitted back in February 2019. It’s taken more than six years to get this far – and not a single brick has been laid.
How can we seriously talk about solving the UK’s housing crisis when it takes this long just to say ‘yes’ in principle?
The site will deliver much-needed homes alongside a school and community infrastructure – exactly the kind of placemaking we need. Yet delays over Section 106 funding, planning confusion and technicalities have dragged this out beyond reason. In the time it took to approve these plans, you’d like to think we could’ve – well – built it all already.
It’s especially frustrating when we consider the recent “golden standard” of UK housebuilding being around the time that initial plans were applied for. As our good friend Noble Francis points out in a recent post, 2018–19 saw peak levels of brick deliveries (compared to following years up to now) – a reliable sign of strong housing starts. So why, during that ‘boom’, didn’t we approve and pipeline more developments like this? If we had, we might not be in such a mess now.
Recent brick deliveries show signs of recovery, but they’re still nearly 27% below 2018–19 levels.
I feel like I’m spinning a very old, tired, broken record here – but if we don’t keep it top of mind then we risk losing focus as an industry.
We need more homes, faster approvals, and less bureaucratic nonsense. Because while this Peterborough development is a step forward, the pace at which it’s happening is rather embarrassing.
