Yes, yes, it’s all those evil bloody builders, wouldn’t you know:

But it is also an example of market failure. The private sector has
born most of the responsibility for building new housing stock since
the introduction of right to buy and the end of new council housing in
the 1980s. The market has failed to match supply with demand. The
reasons are complex, much of it to do with the hoarding of land banks.

It would be interesting to see some evidence of this hoarding of land banks. You know, that they are held for longer than they were in the past? Any and every business needs to plan for its future production, after all. So, how long does it take to go from virgin land with no planninng permission at all to being able to break ground on a project? Is that period of time longer or shorter than the period of time that builders hold on to their land banks? Add in a little for a safety margin as well perhaps?

OK, from what I understand land banks are some 5 years worth of building land (no source, hearsay) and that hasn’t changed much over the decades. I’ve no idea what the time to get planning permission is but I wouldn’t be surprised at all to find that it is some low digit number of years: two or three perhaps, what with possible appeals and the general sluggishness of the planning bureaucracy.

So, anyone actually know these numbers?

And if the above is even roughly right then we’re back to what is causing the high cost of homes in England: the planning system itself. The difference in value between a field and a field with planning permission is vast and in the South, certainly, is more than 50% of the value of a house. (You can build a house for £100,000, fields are £8 k a hectare, you can’t buy a house with garden in the South for less than £200,000.) Thus the problem is in the planning system: we need to have more land being built on.