Digest

• The parliamentary spending watchdog is considering whether it should investigate delays in the planning system in order to help the government meet its target of building 200,000 homes in England each year. The move is being contemplated by the National Audit Office following the publication this month of a separate report into the housebuilding industry. Howard Revill, co-author of Measuring Construction Performance, said: “As we were doing this report, it became clear that there is a need for better indicators around how long it takes for the housebuilding process to work further upstream. By this I mean acquiring land and obtaining planning consents. Understanding this is a vital part of getting to the 200,000 homes target.”

The current report into modern methods of construction was not conducted on behalf of parliament but was commissioned by the four government departments that are involved in housebuilding in the UK: English Partnerships, the Housing Corporation, the DCLG and the DTI. Revill said the aim of the report is to make “modern housebuilding less about how homes are built and more about how well they are built”. It suggests a set of indicators that government departments could collect to measure how well housebuilders and housing associations are performing. See www.nao.org.uk for more information.

• The merger that will see the creation of the UK’s largest housebuilder is due to be finalised on 3 July. The deal between George Wimpey and Taylor Woodrow will result in a business that will build over 20,000 homes each year and deliver cost savings of £70m pounds. A source at Taylor Woodrow downplayed rumours of a rival bid for either company in the interim, saying: “We are at the alter and the priest is just about to ask if there are any objections”.

• Berkeley Group’s student and keyworker accommodation division, Berkeley First is carrying out its first development for open market sale. The division has just won planning permission for a 36-unit scheme in south London's Clapham that marks its emergence as a developer in its own right. Managing director of Berkeley First, Matthew Biddle, said: “Berkeley First is a specialist in complex brownfield developments, identifying ways to generate under-utilised sites through well designed affordable housing.” The company has more market sale schemes in the pipeline.

• The government wants to use its planned new regeneration agency Communities England to break the stranglehold that housebuilders have on the supply of land. The new acting chief executive of the Housing Corporation, Steve Douglas used his first interview in the job to tell Regenerate that this was one of the key roles he hoped the new agency would play. Communities England will replace the Housing Corporation and English Partnerships. Douglas said: “For us the issue has always been about public sector land. The issue in terms of housebuilders is when they get hold of it. If they hold and control it then they hold and control the market. If you've got Communities England actually able to hold and use public sector land… then your ability to impact on the speed and flow of supply is greatly enhanced… It is important that you have a relationship that is principally with the landowner. That you are more in control of supply.” Douglas also said that Communities England would have the option of effectively being the government’s housebuilder where “the market is not working”.