What more can be done?

The strongest response joins planning decisions with the money and infrastructure required to build, and measures the homes people can actually live in.

Plan for deliverable land

Update local plans, test site viability and phase land realistically. Brownfield reuse matters, but contamination and infrastructure costs should be assessed instead of counting every site as immediate supply.

Fund infrastructure early

Coordinate water, electricity, transport, schools and environmental mitigation with site allocations, so a permission can lead to a start.

Build social rent homes

Use the ten-year grant programme and council or housing association capacity to increase secure, genuinely affordable supply, not just the total number of units.

Support planning teams

Reduce avoidable delays through staffing, clear local policies and transparent service standards while retaining scrutiny of genuine impacts.

Reward good design and engagement

Involve residents early on layout, public space, transport and services. Publish what changed in response; explain why material objections were accepted or rejected.

Measure delivery after consent

Publish starts, completions, tenure, build-out rates and reasons sites stall. This separates an approval on paper from a home occupied.

VOICES IN THE DEBATE

People to read

Angela Rayner

Housing Secretary. She promoted the August 2026 station-area planning changes and subsequently acknowledged the challenge of meeting the 1.5 million target.

Government statement ↗ September interview report ↗

Jane Yates

Bolsover council leader. Press reporting on Clowne presents her case for new housing alongside residents’ concerns about the scale of change.

Reported comments ↗

Local Government Association

Its planning policy response supports attention to stalled permissions while warning that council planning capacity is under pressure.

LGA response ↗

THE PRACTICAL TEST

More homes, with fewer false starts

Review these proposals against measured completions, affordable tenure, costs and delays. An intervention can improve one step and still fail overall if another bottleneck remains.