Development Dilemmas: Are Private Property Rights Preventing "Britain Building"?

"The complex web of rights and obligations that link different parcels of land, and their owners, together."¹

The Government has set itself and the property industry the ambitious target of building 1.5m homes over the next parliament. Questions have been raised as to whether this is feasible in light of supply chain issues, a slowdown in land buying and the capacity of essential infrastructure. The Government has acknowledged the challenges of unlocking potential large scale housing development sites: its "New Homes Accelerator" is designed to identify and overcome obstacles for sites with at least more than 500 proposed units.

At the moment, the Government is focusing on bringing forward development through planning reform. However, there are other impediments to development that could also become part of the current reforming agenda. Private property rights are an often under-appreciated area of law, which can complicate or even fetter development. In its 2011