Cluttons has refuted claims that planning policy in the UK is the main barrier to development and increasing housing stock.

Malcolm Chumbley, head of UK development agency for the firm of international property consultants and chartered surveyors, said: “Even in the unlikely event of the government permitting all 1.6 million hectares of greenbelt land to be built upon, what developers really need is the finance to get major projects off the ground.

“Funding for potential schemes is falling in and out of bed almost daily as projects struggle to make the sums add up with limited finance.

“The planning system has been tinkered with enough; it’s now time for a government growth agenda which gets the money markets moving again.”