Crackdown planned on empty plot hoarding

Empty development plot

Property developers are facing a crackdown if they attempt to put aside building plots in the hope of getting a better price at a later date.

The Government has said it intends to take stern steps to tackle the country’s housing shortage, and these could include measures to make sure new builds are completed, and not just started. Housing minister Yvette Cooper, the MP for the West Yorkshire constituency of Pontefract & Castleford, last month launched a £500m fund to help councils identify new land and speed up new starts. Ms Cooper says that the combination of slow delivery of homes and failure to find enough land puts the government’s target of three million new homes by 2020 in jeopardy.

It was also revealed last month that the number of housing new starts in the first half of 2007 was down 9% on the same period for 2006. Around 86,000 were started this year. Ms Cooper has called for a tightening up of the building process she says is being dragged back by developers. The industry has rejected the claims, saying the planning system is at fault.

The housing target of 240,000 homes a year – up 20% on previous targets – was set out in this summer’s green paper. One suggestion put forward to speed up the process has been for house-builders to complete their projects within a set time-period, rather than simply commencing the work within three years of permission being given, as is now the case.