Will street votes and net zero rules stifle Britain’s housing market?

In this podcast, we focus on a couple of the bills most relevant for the property sector - energy security and levelling up and regeneration. Anna quizzes Knight Frank’s heads of planning and energy – Stuart Baillie and David Goatman – about the likely impact on housing development.

They discuss the impact of shelving comprehensive planning reform and giving local residents more say over development, and assess government plans to toughen up net zero rules, with housebuilders mandated to reduce carbon emissions in new homes by 30% from next month (June 15).

So how will this impact the delivery of new homes? Baillie suggests ‘street votes’ on local design codes could “further stifle rather than stimulate development”, while Goatman says that developers are “understandably asking a lot of questions” about how to meet new net zero targets at a time of build cost increases and lengthy planning delays for much needed green infrastructure projects.