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Chancellor John Healey has announced measures affecting housing delivery and planning in the 2026 Autumn Budget. These include changes to biodiversity net gain requirements on brownfield sites, support for council housebuilding, VAT relief on land purchased for social housing, and new support for first-time buyers.
\nThe Budget includes an additional £1.5 billion for the Social and Affordable Homes Programme, taking funding for the 10-year programme beyond £40 billion. The government will also extend preferential borrowing rates to help councils invest in housebuilding and make land sold to social housing providers VAT-free. The measures are intended to support affordable housing delivery and help councils replace homes sold through Right to Buy.
\nOn planning and development, the government will remove biodiversity requirements from brownfield sites. Healey also confirmed that there would be no major changes to building regulations for the remainder of the Parliament, apart from those relating to safety.
\nFor first-time buyers, Healey announced a new First Time Buyer ISA to replace the Lifetime ISA, alongside changes to the existing scheme’s withdrawal penalty. He noted that that buyers whose chosen property costs more than the Lifetime ISA price limit would be able to get back at least what they had paid in.
\nHealey also announced £4.7 billion in government-backed lending for a new equity loan scheme, Your First Home, due to launch next spring. The scheme is aimed at first-time buyers without financial support from family, which the Chancellor referred to as “the bank of mum and dad”.
\nThe Chancellor also committed £430 million to provide people sleeping rough with a place to sleep for the remainder of the Parliament, describing the commitment as a moral mission.
\nAlongside these measures, the government announced a new cost-control framework aimed at reducing energy bills by moving clean energy policy costs away from household bills. The levy used to fund hydrogen projects will be scrapped in favour of direct government funding, while older renewable energy projects will move onto fixed-price contracts. Healey said cheaper energy was the government’s priority, with clean power key to achieving it, and reiterated its commitment to net zero by 2050.
\nDan Williams, Chief Revenue Officer, TerraQuest and Planning Portal commented: \"Planning Portal data shows the pipeline for new homes in England is in strong shape, with 400,000 net additional homes applied for in the 12 months to September 2026. Today's Budget, including the Your First Home scheme and further investment in social and affordable housing, gives buyers and developers real confidence. Affordable housing is a particular bright spot. 2025 saw the highest number of applications for social and affordable homes this decade, and momentum has continued, with 103,841 homes applied for in the 12 months to September. The additional £1.5bn for the Social and Affordable Homes Programme builds directly on that. And with around 81% of homes applied for in Q3 on sites of more than 50 units, there's a real opportunity to bring more small and medium-sized builders into the pipeline too. We're seeing the intent at the top of the funnel: the applications, the appetite, the ambition. We've all got a job to do to turn that into homes on the ground, and we believe today's Budget can help convert that intent into a wave of delivery that drives the country forward.\"
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The government has announced a further £432 million to support people experiencing rough sleeping in England, as part of its commitment to offer everyone sleeping rough a route off the streets or wider support before Christmas.
\nThe additional funding, which is due to be confirmed at the Autumn Budget, will extend support beyond March 2027 and through to the end of the current Parliament. The government says it will bring total investment behind the commitment to £874 million.
\nAs part of the latest announcement, the National Housing Federation will work with housing associations and local authorities to identify at least 2,000 potential homes and bedspaces for people moving away from rough sleeping, including empty properties that could be brought back into use.
\nThe announcement follows Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s first policy pledge, made on in July 2026, when he committed to ending long-term rough sleeping and announced an additional £340 million to support the programme.
\nThe government will also bring together businesses, charities, housing providers and local leaders at a Rough Sleeping Summit at Downing Street to coordinate support. Virgin Media O2 will provide digital support to frontline organisations, while L’Oréal Group will launch a Social Salon partnership with St Mungo’s and Haircuts4Homeless.
\nFor further information, read the government announcement.
\nThe government has extended the deadline for eligible local planning authorities in England to submit local plans for examination under the existing planning system, moving the deadline from 31 December 2026 to 31 March 2027.
\nIn a letter to council leaders on 23 October, Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook said the extension would give authorities whose plans are at an advanced stage more time to complete the process as the government transitions to its new local plan-making system.
\nThe minister said 56 plans had reached pre-submission consultation so far this year. He also acknowledged that some authorities still needed to complete administrative and governance tasks before submitting their plans, despite being close to meeting the original deadline.
\nTo qualify for the extension, plans must have completed their final Regulation 19 consultation by 31 December 2026. Plans already subject to a specific ministerial direction on their submission date are not automatically covered, and authorities will need to request an amendment for consideration.
\nAuthorities that will miss the original December deadline have been asked to submit an updated Local Development Scheme, setting out their revised submission date, by the end of November. The minister said no further extensions should be expected beyond March 2027.
\nRead the minister’s letter on the local plan submission deadline.
\nResearch by the Home Builders Federation (HBF), in partnership with Paragon Bank Development Finance, has examined how long local planning authorities take to approve requests to discharge planning conditions and how these timescales relate to housing delivery.
\nThe research, covering a three-year period, found that 50.8% of applications were determined within the statutory eight-week timeframe. The proportion determined within this period was 55.6% in 2023/24 and 51.8% in 2024/25. For the available 2025/26 data, the median determination time was 70 days – 14 days longer than the statutory 56-day timeframe.
\nPlanning conditions are requirements attached to planning permission that developers must meet and obtain approval for at different stages of a development. According to Planning, Building & Construction Today, some conditions must be discharged before construction can begin. This means work may be unable to start until the relevant conditions have been approved, even where planning permission has already been granted.
\nThe HBF research also found variation in determination times between local authorities.
\nThe research also considers the implications for housebuilders, particularly smaller developers who may have less flexibility to manage changes to construction schedules and additional financing costs while waiting for outstanding conditions to be discharged.
\nPlanning Portal is also investing in tools and improvements to help local planning authorities work more efficiently by improving the quality of applications before they are submitted. These include clearer guidance, better document management and earlier visibility of site-specific planning constraints, with enhanced completeness and readiness checks planned to help applicants identify missing information and common errors before submission.
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