Britain faces a housing crisis in the wake of the pandemic as confusion about planning rules and shortages of staff undermine government targets to build 300,000 homes a year, according to a House of Lords committee.

A retreat from housebuilding by smaller companies must be tackled by ministers to reduce the shortage of homes, the cross-party group of peers said.

“Too many people currently live in expensive, unsuitable and poor-quality homes, and housing supply needs to be increased now to tackle the housing crisis,” the committee said in its report, titled Meeting Housing Demand.

The housing secretary, Michael Gove, is expected to set out the government’s plans to kickstart housebuilding after the industry suffered the twin blows of Brexit, which reduced the amount of skilled labour available, and the upheaval caused by the pandemic.

Gove has indicated he will encourage employment and housing in the regions as part of the government’s levelling up agenda, though this is likely to be a long-term project.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe, chair of the Lords’ built environment committee, said: “The government’s ambitious target of 300,000 new homes a year will only be met if it takes action to remove the barriers for housebuilders, particularly for SMEs, which 35 years ago built 39% of new homes but now build just 10%.”

The committee was critical of a U-turn over proposed reforms to planning rules that would have divided areas into zones, some of which are reserved for conservation and others that have few or no rules holding back developers.

The government is reportedly backpedalling on its commitment to overhaul planning laws in order to accelerate infrastructure projects with a target of building 300,000 homes a year in England.

Part of the government’s “Project Speed”, the new planning laws were announced in the Queen’s speech with the target of modernising and simplifying the system and increasing the number of homes being planned by more than a third.

The planning reforms have been met with criticism from countryside campaigners, who said the changes would lead to the “suburbanisation” of green areas without delivering much-needed affordable housing.

News that the plans could be scrapped follows the Conservatives’ shock defeat in the Chesham & Amersham byelection to the Liberal Democrats in June, which was blamed by some Tory MPs on the new laws. In the run-up to the vote, the Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, said that if his party gained the Buckinghamshire constituency, which had formerly been a safe seat for the Conservatives, it would be “a massive mandate for those of us who were campaigning against the planning reforms”.

Historical discoveries could be at risk if government does not put archaeology at the heart of its new planning reforms, experts have warned.

Archaeologists, academics and professional bodies have launched a campaign to ensure their work with developers remains a legal requirement.

It has the backing of TV academics Prof Alice Roberts and Dan Snow, along with a number of MPs and peers.

The government said it was “determined to protect archaeological treasures”.

Boris Johnson first announced his proposals for reform of the planning system in England last year, with the aim of stopping local opponents blocking development in designated “growth” zones.

The Planning Bill was then confirmed in the Queen’s Speech in May – with the promise of a vote in Parliament in the coming year.

But there has already been disquiet on the Conservative benches over concerns it could side-line locals and lead to a “free for all” for development.

Now archaeologists are concerned that the current rigorous assessments required by developers – laid out in law in 1990 by the then-Conservative government – are missing and they want guarantees the bill will include them, else heritage in the country could be lost.

Plans for a new town in rural Sussex backed by one of the Conservative party’s biggest donors and close allies of Prince Charles, are exposing a split in the Tory party over how to rapidly accelerate housebuilding.

Kingswood, a scheme for 2,850 homes, is being proposed on open fields at Adversane near Horsham which have been assembled by hedge fund billionaire Sir Michael Hintze who has given £4.6m to the Conservatives. Its design is partly inspired by Poundbury, the ersatz Georgian town in Dorset created by Prince Charles, and Sir Michael Peat, the Prince of Wales’s former private secretary is a director of the development company.

But it is being opposed by local Conservative MP Andrew Griffith, who said it is “the wrong type of development in the wrong place” and local Tory councillors who have warned: “No community wants this on their doorstep.” It looks set to be a test case for the government’s controversial new planning strategy announced last month which is set to relax national planning rules and set significantly higher local housebuilding targets in areas including Horsham.

Simplifying the planning system and making improvements for rural areas could unlock billions of pounds in the economy, according to the Country Land and Business Association (CLA).

The organisation’s policy report Rural Powerhouse: a planning system designed for the rural economy was published on Friday 17 July.

It explains how a simpler and properly resourced planning system can support, enable and enhance development in the countryside.

Currently, the planning system is complicated, lengthy and expensive, and actively discourages people from investing in rural areas through development, says the CLA.

Mark Bridgeman, CLA president, said the government is looking to adapt the planning system – as shown by the prime minister’s recent “Build, Build, Build” announcement – and it is crucial to ensure it works in rural areas as well as the urban high street.

“The sheer cost of going through the planning system makes it an increasing hurdle, and this is a big issue for many of our members,” said Mr Bridgeman.

“Applicants must spend thousands of pounds on planning costs without really knowing if they’re going to be able to make it a success. Our key focus is how can we simplify this?”

Ministers have been warned that an overhaul of planning rules could cut the amount of affordable housing even further, despite Theresa May’s pledge to take “personal charge” of solving the housing crisis.

Serious concerns have emerged that an updated version of the government’s planning laws appears to alter the definition of what counts as “affordable housing” in a way that could make it less affordable.

The updated draft National Planning Policy Framework contains a new definition that has removed any direct reference to the most affordable type of property, known as social rented housing. However, it does include types of housing, such as shared ownership and starter homes, that cost far more.

Social rented housing is owned by local authorities and private registered providers and is let out to those most in need. Rents are on average about half the market value.

Advertisement

Housing charity Shelter is raising the concerns in an official submission to the government’s consultation on the updated document. It also fears it will increase the use of “viability assessments”, which allow developers to limit contributions to infrastructure and affordable housing.

It comes amid growing evidence of an unaffordable housing market for many. Last week official figures showed workers faced paying 7.8 times their annual earnings to buy a home last year, up 2.4% since 2016.

Country manor house that inspired Thomas Hardy is at the centre of a planning row as the local council recommended 120 houses be built next door.

The development near Dorchester in Dorset would “ruin the environs” of Elizabethan Grade I listed Wolfeton House which the great novelist frequently visited, according to the Hardy Society.

It was owned for 400 years by the Trenchard family whose name provided the inspiration the main character in Hardy’s classic 1886 novel The Mayor of Casterbridge.

The writer also used the house in the short story The Lady Penelope, in which he described it as “an ivied manor-house, flanked by battlemented towers”.

Despite the of opposition against the housing estate planners at West Dorset District Council have recommended it be built. A committee meeting to decide the matter will be held in three weeks time.

Wolfeton House is currently owned by Captain Nigel Thimbleby, a retired army officer and relative of the Trenchards, and his wife Katharine.

Capt Thimbleby, 82, said: “The parish council had voted unanimously against this development and we all thought it was unlikely to proceed. It was only recently that we realised we were being taken for a ride.

“We have got three weeks to sharpen our pencils and do battle and oppose these plans with vigour.

Wealthy homeowners should brace themselves for “open season” on greenfield land after ministers unveiled a plan to force new housing schemes on the most sought after parts of the country.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England said that plans to create a single way to calculate housing need will require a big increase in more homes to be built in the Home Counties.

Councils are likely to be forced to accept more homes by bureaucrats if they refuse to agree to the increased targets.

Current regulations say that if councils fail to meet their housing target they are expected to find 20 per cent more sights for development.

The plans were unveiled by Sajid Javid, the Communities secretary, who said in a speech to the Local Government Association that a consultation will be launched in three weeks’ time

Councillors in England think that the planning system works in the interests of developers over councils and local communities, according to new survey.

The survey of 1,200 ward councillors in England was carried out by think tank Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) and commissioned by the National Trust.

According to the findings, 72 per cent of councillors think that the planning system is too weighted in favour of developers, at the expense of local communities.

In addition, half of those asked suggested that sites that are not in line with the local plan are being approved for housing, while the same percentage think planning departments are not adequately resourced. 36 per cent said that it is adequately resourced.

Jonathan Carr-West, chief executive at the LGiU, said: “The planning system is one of the fundamental pillars of local democracy, allowing communities to help shape the physical structure of the places they live. Councillors are the most important link between communities and that system. Our survey with the National Trust shows that many councillors feel that this democratic tool is at risk of being undermined.”