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Boris Johnson attacks ‘oligopoly’ of developers in defence of housebuilding record
Boris Johnson has admitted that an “oligopoly” of firms dominating the housing market is a problem and that the government must do more to help smaller developers.
Answering a question at the Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) annual conference in London today, the prime minister defended his government’s record on housebuilding but accepted that more needs to be done.
“The secret is to tackle some of the obstructions in planning,” he told delegates. “We do have a problem of an oligopoly by a small number of developers. We need to encourage more small developers.”
It is not the first time Mr Johnson has attacked big developers. At last year’s Conservative Party conference he lambasted the “big eight” house builders, which he said were “frankly abusing their dominant position”, and he vowed to “crack down” on landbanking.
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A government-commissioned report published last year by Sir Oliver Letwin, which looked at landbanking, said that builders of large sites must accept more “diversity” of tenure. However the report was criticised for not going far enough in its recommendations.
This weekend, however, Tony Pidgley, founder and chair of house builder Berkeley Group, backed a reform of planning laws to remove ‘planning gain’ from developers that buy land and then see its value rise when planning permission is granted.
Mr Johnson was initially challenged today over whether the Conservatives’ housing policy was enough about affordable housing.
Nick Lakin, corporate affairs director at retailer Kingfisher, which owns B&Q and Screwfix, highlighted government figures published a year ago showing that just 6,463 homes were built in England for social rent in 2017/18, which was down from around 30,000 a decade ago.
However Mr Johnson pointed to official figures released last week showing that housing supply was at a 30-year high.
Mr Johnson disputed the questioner’s claim on social housing but admitted that he would have to check the figures. He claimed that the government had built more council homes in one year than the Labour government did in 13 years.
“We are the party of building,” he said.
Mr Johnson later said that more brownfield sites need to be freed up. “We also need to be putting in transport infrastructure that liberates development on brownfield sites and liberates housing development across the country.”
It comes as the government has been stepping up its efforts to stop controversial developments on the green belt.
In a speech following Mr Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn said that, if elected, he would introduce a ‘climate apprenticeship programme’ to train 80,000 people a year to tackle the shortfall in industries such as construction and “transition to a green economy”.
In its manifesto for an incoming government, the CBI called for housing to be an “infrastructure priority, increasing the supply of affordable homes as part of the commitment to building 300,000 homes a year”.
