Developers in Britain are being urged to bring land forward more quickly in order to help address housing shortages and increase the nation’s housing stock.

Ministers have stressed the importance of bringing land forward for housing, earmarking more brownfield land for development and preventing developers from ‘land banking’ suitable sites with planning permission.

A raft of new measures to boost provision of new housing in the UK have been outlined in the government’s housing green paper, including plans to build millions of new homes across the country, potentially increasing the number of planning jobs in Britain.

Under proposals, current regulations would be tightened to shorten periods of consent and developers would be required to put large parts of the infrastructure of a site in place within three years of planning permission being approved.

New plans include rewarding councils and local government partnerships that deliver a high level of new housing, completing two million new homes by 2016 and creating new ‘eco towns’ to set examples of sustainable efficiencies.

Meanwhile, the government has launched a new consultation with local authorities and developers on the Planning Gain Supplement (PGS) and possible alternatives to it, including a lower PGS and scaling back of planning obligations.

More about sustainable efficiencies.