David Bainbridge, a director for Savills Planning, and Sarah Fenton, a director for Savills Development, both based in the firm’s Oxford office, discuss the latest phase of the Government’s New Homes Accelerator initiative.
The Government is in the process of overhauling the planning system to accelerate housebuilding and deliver 1.5 million homes over this Parliament.
There are proposed planning policy and guidance changes from Government to help with supply but fewer measures proposed on the demand side of the housebuilding equation.
The Chancellor is due to deliver the UK’s 2026 Spring Statement on March 3, expected to focus on an economic update from the Office for Budget Responsibility. On the basis of steady sale rates for new build housing, some are hoping that there will be measures introduced signalling Government support for home ownership and greater accessibility for first time buyers.
Our new homes teams have seen a good first month of sales by first time buyers, which is encouraging, and the latest Savills UK Housing Market Update shows positive indicators.
However, confidence and price growth remain subdued and this sets the tone for the rest of the year ahead.
Meanwhile, new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) report that Gross Domestic Product grew by just 0.1 per cent in the last three months of 2025, and unemployment stood at 5.1 per cent with significant improvement not expected until 2027.
It is against this backdrop that the Government announced Phase 2 of the New Homes Accelerator at the end of January. The initiative, which was first announced by the Chancellor in July 2024, aims to speed up the delivery of large-scale housing developments across England. Initially it targeted sites of over 500 dwellings, with an emphasis on sites over 1,500 dwellings.
Now, to widen the scope of the initiative, the Government is inviting developers, landowners and local authorities to come forward with sites under 500 dwellings that may benefit from support. To qualify, sites must be a large-scale housing development with significant delays or obstacles preventing progression.
The initiative has brought in planning experts to assist with sites across the country, whilst also working closely with statutory consultees and other Government departments to help address specific issues impacting sites in the programme.
What still remains unclear is as to what mechanism, incentives and strategies will be under the New Homes Accelerator to assist with the speed up of delivery.
The Phase 2 announcement highlights seven new sites that are joining the programme, which will together bring forward more than 11,400 homes across priority growth areas, including in the Oxford–Cambridge Growth Corridor at Bicester in North Oxfordshire and at Stewartby in Bedfordshire.
Fiscal incentives will be needed to help delivery of infrastructure for new homes as well as collaboration in the planning system. In order to deliver a real boost to housebuilding, a range of sites is needed, from smaller housing-only sites through to large strategic-scale development, including new towns.
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