Labour has revealed plans to crack down on developers who don't build homes on their land quickly enough, with planning permission, a practice known as the “land bank.”
Over the weekend, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said under the proposal of the new government, housebuilders should commit to delivery time slots before obtaining permission for the plan and submit an annual report showing progress to the council to “go on track.” 
Construction failure
Developers who cannot consistently build sites with consent, and those who simply secure planning permissions to trade land speculatively, could face thousands of “delayed home penalties” for each unbuilt home paid directly to local planning authorities.
However, the toughest measure within the proposal is to allow the council to acquire a “land bank site” with land that has been sued in public interest and stripped of future planning permission.
The government is also considering enforcing the site to enforce a mixed-use tenure of both real estate sales and rentals, ensuring that a higher percentage of homes are “affordable.”
Radical Steps
“The government has taken fundamental steps to overhaul the planning system to rebuild the UK after years of inaction,” Rayner says.
“In the name of providing security for workers, we are helping builders, not blockers, and now is the time for developers to roll up their sleeves and play their part.
It supports builders, not blockers. Now is the time for developers to roll up their sleeves and play their part. ”
“We're going even further to get more homes we need. Sites with planning permission have not collected dust for decades, but generations have struggled to ride home ladders. Through planning for change, we deliver 1.5 million homes, fix the housing crisis, and make home ownership a reality for workers.”
The Local Government Association, which is pushing for the change, welcomed the announcement and said:
Builder response
“We are pleased to announce that we are a great opportunity to see the company's efforts to ensure that we are a part of the country,” said Richard Beresford, Aeon CEO of the National Federation of Builders (NFB).
“Landowners, land promoters and developer investors could sell permits, because they don't build the site and make the finances work. A few years after no evidence found that Tory's investigation is a builder's land bank site, Labouir finds no evidence that they concluded the practice.
To provide a timeline for developers to deliver delivery, they need a rule-based planning system based on certainty, the opposite of the UK system.
“Also, to name some barriers, there will be key utilities, environmental and legal agreement reforms. If there are not a significant number of penalty exemptions, fewer homes will be built to avoid the risk of building contractors planning politics. The biggest winner here could be a lawyer.”
The workers' announcements fly in the face of a previous government investigation into land banks in 2018. Leading by then-Tory MP Oliver Letwin, then Prime Minister Philip Hammond said after publication that “the review found no evidence that speculative land banks were part of the business model of major home builders.”
