Image: Istock
Housing delivery accelerator toolkit
How local authorities can unlock and accelerate development in light of changes to national planning policy
GROWTH, REGENERATION & DEVELOPMENT
Stuart Sage
Director, Hive Land & Planning
Stuart Sage
Director, Hive Land & Planning
Issue 78 | June 2025
Successive governments have fallen short of meeting national housing targets. In the North of England, this is partly due to green belt restrictions and brownfield regeneration opportunities plagued by viability constraints.
However, the national planning policy landscape is undergoing significant revision to produce a step change in housing delivery and kick-start economic growth, including:
- A new Standard Methodology for calculating Local Housing Needs, significantly increasing the national housing need figure and obligating councils to deliver these as a minimum.
- “Grey belt” and the restored requirement for all authorities to demonstrate a five-year housing land supply.
Key steps
We understand the housing delivery and financial pressures that local authorities already face.
Responding to these challenges, we have developed a comprehensive Housing Delivery Accelerator Toolkit to help unlock and accelerate residential development, while presenting the opportunity for authorities to drive economic benefits.
This graphic shows the key steps to accelerate housing delivery, prioritising brownfield land and relieving financial pressures.
Case studies: how the toolkit has helped four authorities and organisations to unlock housing delivery.
Cumbria: residential development opportunities and interventions (Step 1)
The toolkit was used to identify and assess the scale of Cumbria’s residential opportunity, providing a pipeline of potential housing development sites over five to 10 years. Our role included:
- Establishing a set of study criteria in collaboration with the client.
- A review of key council documents, housing land supply and planning application data and housing market performance.
- Identifying potential public sector interventions to aid housing delivery, including brokering, technical due diligence, grant funding and potential acquisition.
- Working closely with the most active developers to gather market intelligence to gain a deeper understanding of deliverability issues.
The result was a comprehensive database of residential sites providing a clear overview of the delivery barriers and necessary interventions to bring forward delivery Cumbria-wide.
Istock: Keswick town centre
Preston: A model for urban regeneration (Step 2)
A comprehensive regeneration strategy, including developing the award-winning City Living Strategy (CLS). This requires the public sector to take a strategic, place-based, area-wide approach to drive regeneration and unlock a new supply of brownfield sites. We:
- Identified and engaged landowners.
- Analysed and categorised potential development sites.
- Facilitated engagement with funding bodies.
- Stimulated market interest through branding, events and publicity.
- Provided a vision that council officers and members can support.
This strategy exemplifies an innovative approach to identifying, unlocking and kick-starting the delivery of 50+ brownfield sites and establishes significantly higher benchmark rental and sales values.
Wigan: maximising small site potential (Step 3)
In Wigan, we developed an initiative to expedite the delivery of affordable homes on small/medium authority-owned sites. We led a multi-disciplinary team to advise on de-risking, technical due diligence, marketing and disposal, including capacity-based masterplans and valuations.
The strategy was formulated working alongside developers, contractors and funding bodies. Extensive soft market testing established investor and contractor interest.
The project will drive the marketing and disposal of 15 underutilised sites with capacity for around 400 affordable homes.
“The project will drive the marketing and disposal of 15 underutilised sites with capacity for around 400 affordable homes.”
Istock: Ashton-under-Lyne
Tameside: driving regeneration and housing growth (Step 4)
We are instructed to identify a series of targeted workstreams to accelerate housing delivery, which responds to new policy challenges and historic housing under-supply. We will:
- Comprehensively review evidence documents and workstreams in the housing delivery test action plan and Housing Strategy documents to identify a range of targeted solutions.
- Support Council capacity through project management, supporting activities of the Ashton Mayoral Development Zone, formulating regeneration strategies, public sector funding advice, de-risking and disposal of land and development partner negotiations.
This flexible approach extends Council capacity to support ambitious regeneration and housing growth objectives.
These cases demonstrate a comprehensive and strategic approach to unlocking housing development, driving regeneration and addressing housing needs through collaboration, market intelligence and targeted interventions.
