Berkeley boss slams new home planning obstacles

THE boss of London's biggest housebuilder today hit out at the planning and regulatory obstacles in the way of construction and called for a "brownfield first" approach to slash the time taken to approve urban redevelopment.

- Michael Hunter

Berkeley Group's Rob Perrins backed what he called "the Mayor's aspirations on affordable housing and better homes", but he singled out the main source of delays as Sadiq Khan struggles to get development going.

"The real issue at the moment is planning. We have enough brownfield sites in London. But it is taking four years to get permission when it should take one year." He added: "Get planning from four years to one year, you'll drive investment and we'll get closer to the housing numbers we require ... There are 20 changes that need to happen - we've written to the Government, we've written to the Mayor - but it can happen.

I've seen it happen on a few sites, I'm just not seeing it on enough." Perrins also pointed out that there had been "an awful lot of regulatory changes" which were not designed to help the industry move at pace.