UK

Build, Baby Build — But Who Really Wins?

October 28, 2025HubMP2012

The Government is doubling down on a system designed for corporate gain rather than public need, suggests Cllr James Valentine.

The Government’s new Planning and Infrastructure Bill is being sold as a game-changer for housebuilding, the legislative key to unlocking its election promise of 1.5 million new homes. But beneath the fanfare, it is hard to see who really benefits.

The Bill claims to ‘streamline’ England’s planning process by cutting red tape to get homes built faster. Yet much of the old machinery stays firmly in place. The core planning framework remains untouched, along with the risks of building in the wrong places and the failure to guarantee genuinely affordable housing.

Take flooding. Even with repeated warnings from the Environment Agency and the Committee on Climate Change, an estimated 100,000 of these new homes could still be built on the highest-risk flood plains. The “sequential test,” which is meant to steer development away from flood-prone areas, remains intact. Developers have long mastered the art of proving that their floodplain projects ‘cannot go anywhere else’. A recent tweak to official guidance in September 2025 has only tilted the rules further in their favour.

Meanwhile, the economic logic of planning has not shifted. Policy still assumes that developers deserve a 15–20% profit margin as standard. Affordable housing requirements, negotiated through Section 106 agreements, are routinely watered down through “viability assessments,” legal loopholes that allow developers to claim that meeting affordability targets would make their projects unprofitable. Shelter estimates that up to 80% of affordable homes disappear this way before the first brick is laid.

The Government and the Mayor of London have now agreed to change the quota for the amount of affordable housing for new developments in London from 35% to 20% and because of the viability loophole, the notional 20% is bound to be reduced further.

It is no wonder the big housebuilders, many posting returns of up to 30%, have welcomed the Bill. Looser planning, more greenbelt land to exploit, and no new curbs on profit all work in their favour.

Housing Secretary Steve Reed’s slogan, “Build, baby, build,” sounds less like a social mission and more like a sales pitch. Ministers can rail against ‘Nimbys’ and talk up ‘builders versus blockers’ all they want, but it is a distraction. The real story is that, in the name of growth, the Government is doubling down on a system designed for corporate gain rather than public need.

The result is predictable: more homes in the wrong places, fewer that ordinary people can afford, and a planning system rebuilt once again to keep the developers happy.

James Valentine is a Councillor for Kempston West Ward, Bedford Borough.

Image: Flooding in Huntingdon, Winter 2019 https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6350386 © Copyright Richard Humphrey and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic CC BY-SA 2.0 Deed