We need beautiful homes to solve the housing crisis

But England is currently only building around 220,000-240,000 new homes a year, compared with France at roughly 380,000 and Japan at 860,000 – even though its population is shrinking.

So why, as an industry, have we built far fewer homes than we need?

House builders like to blame the planning system and public opposition for the slow pace of housebuilding. Campaign groups like to blame house builders for maximising profit and ignoring local concerns.

You’d expect me, I am sure, as the land director of one of the region’s fastest-growing house builders, to toe the industry line and set out an agenda to accelerate planning permissions and bulldoze through community priorities.

“If house builders are to be trusted to build more homes, more quickly, then they need to significantly up their game in terms of delivering beautiful homes set in quality landscapes”

We certainly do need to streamline the planning process – it takes too long and costs too much at present. So, yes, I do look forward to the new government’s promised reform of the planning system, along with additional support from new planning officers and a taskforce to accelerate stalled housing sites. The system needs to be simpler, cheaper and fairer to allocate land for housing and then for house builders to get on site and deliver their part of the deal – high-quality homes that people can afford.

But I do not advocate any reform that could be seen as fulfilling the mantra of “build, build, build”. If house builders are to be trusted to build more homes, more quickly, then they need to significantly up their game in terms of delivering beautiful homes set in quality landscapes.

The failure of the industry to design beautiful homes that reflect their locality and surrounding environment is one of the main reasons why so many people shudder when they hear about a planning application close to them. Currently, too many developments are simply ill thought through and poorly designed, leaving behind lasting scars and eroding trust.

I believe in a very simple philosophy – if you build beautiful homes, people will want to buy them and communities will not fear development. The homes we build will last for generations and we believe they should therefore be a fitting legacy for our region.

“The failure of the industry to design beautiful homes that reflect their locality and surrounding environment is one of the main reasons why so many people shudder when they hear about a planning application close to them”

We’ve recently received planning approval for and started building the first residential phase at our St Edmunds Gate development in Bury St Edmunds. This is our flagship development, and we see it as the cornerstone of our growth plans. We’ve taken great care to showcase our commitment to good design in the homes chosen. From the facades, right through to the build quality, this will be a development that we hope will be an exemplar across the region.

As someone who grew up in East Anglia, and who lives there still, I am very conscious of the impact houses have on the landscape. I don’t want our company to be remembered as the one that added an ugly estate to the side of a small village, or built places that people don’t want to live in or can’t afford.

If we are to solve the housing crisis without damaging the beauty of our country, we need to focus on building beautiful homes in lovely landscapes at a price that people can afford.

Yes, of course, we do need to reform our cumbersome and under-resourced planning system and yes, it would be nice if local people didn’t automatically object to new homes near them. But alongside that, house builders need to up their game, too – a focus on first-class design would help us all – and leave a legacy that we can all be proud of.

Joshua Hopkins, managing director, Denbury Homes