The Barker Review of Housing Supply, published in March 2004, recommended increasing the delivery of new homes in England by between 70,000 and 120,000 each year to help lower the rate of house price growth and mitigate issues of market volatility, reduced affordability, and macroeconomic instability. The CBRE’s research also found that while average annual house price growth has lowered, affordability has worsened. The average house price-to-earnings ratio across England has increased from 5.
However, it found planning decision speed has continuously slowed in the last decade. Overall, almost 60 per cent of major planning applications were decided within 13 weeks in 2012, but this had fallen to just 20 per cent in 2023. The CBRE also looked at possible rent controls and warns the short-term benefits would likely not outweigh the long-term cost of supply shortages and poor-quality stock.