As the macro-economic picture stabilises and threatens to improve, construction related businesses are all faced with the promise of better times sometime in the coming months.

However, if New Domestic House Build is part of your business, it seems that this may not be such a feasible promise. Having spoken with a number of house builders, there is a real concern over the planning situation in the UK. Local planning offices are under-resourced and unable to meet the demand of the House Build sector – even though it is currently depressed.

Local Authorities have had their Housing Targets removed – which was a fundamental part of the National Planning Policy Framework, ensuring Local Authorities had a Local Plan to deliver their local housing needs. In essence this meant that the Local Authority had to have a fully agreed plan to deliver the needs of the local area, and without this any planning applications from house builders which were rejected, were approved on appeal – due to the Local Authority not having a plan of their own. This no longer exists, as Government seeks to keep as many voters as sweet as possible, prior to the upcoming election. The CMA (Competition & Markets Authority) concluded in a recent report that planning permissions must be sustained at a somewhat higher level over an extended period in order to deliver realistic levels of homes.

For the builders’ merchant sector and the suppliers within it – especially timber suppliers due to the growing share of timber frame – this is a catastrophe. As we see the possibility of an exit from a very difficult period of trading, we need all doors open, rather than Local Authorities seeking to keep a lid on the house build sector and all that supply it.