Henry Scott, Partner at StephensonsRural, shares his reaction to the government’s latest affordable housing pledge, and explains why money alone won’t solve the sector’s real problem.

One of the major headlines from this week’s Spending Review was Rachel Reeves' new ‘Affordable Housing Programme’, with the UK Government committing £39 billion over the next decade to the affordable homes sector.

Such an investment, a significant increase on the annual budget of £2.5 billion allocated under the 2021–26 programme, ought to be a welcome intervention and demonstrates one of the investment levers the government can pull to energise the development market, particularly within the affordable homes sector.

My fear is that this is a spending promise which is not aligned with the major issues in the development sector, primarily a planning system which is creaking at the seams.

For instance, the Prime Minister has made building 1.5 million homes over the next five years one of his key 'promises'. However, new figures show that just 39,140 homes in England were given planning approval in the first three months of 2025, a dramatic 55% fall from the previous quarter, and 32 per cent down compared to the same period last year. Applications which should take eight to 12 weeks are taking 24 weeks, or even up to a year in some cases.

Planning reform is vital to address this planning lottery and offer some certainty and consistency to developers, investors and other key stakeholders.

Moreover, last year, the government rewrote the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and reinstated housing targets for Local Planning Authorities. In North Yorkshire, much has been made of our annual housebuilding target of 4,077 houses, more than triple the previous figure. Is this truly deliverable?

As a starter for ten, it surely does not help the process that, for example, Ryedale District Council’s last Local Plan was first adopted on 5 September 2013 with the proposed North Yorkshire Combined Authority Local Plan set for adoption sometime in 2029.

I appreciate such things take a reasonable amount of time, but with a NPPF shifting so quickly and radically, with a top-down government imposing headline winning housing targets, time is very much of the essence to address market uncertainty and the over-arching barriers in the planning system.

Perhaps timely, on Tuesday next week we have been invited to attend North Yorkshire Council’s Developer Engagement Event and its update on the North Yorkshire Local Plan - following which, I will be reporting back to our clients on our findings.

If you’re a developer, investor or landowner affected by housing policy or planning delays, get in touch with Henry Scott and James Stephenson at StephensonsRural for advice.