Government efforts to overhaul the planning system have been met with scepticism by landlords with fewer than a quarter believing reforms will improve prospects for their buy-to-let businesses.

Polling by specialist lender Landbay found that almost eight out of 10 (77%) property investors do not expect planning changes to have a positive impact.

Only 13% think easing rules could create more opportunities to purchase new-build homes, while just 9% believe reforms could spur job creation and boost rental demand.

WE’RE IN TROUBLE

Rob Stanton, sales and distribution director at Landbay, described the findings as “damning”.

He said: “Landlords are an important stakeholder in the planning system and the wider housing market, driving conversions, refits and extensions as well as funding a share of new-build housing.

“If property investors are not convinced planning reform will positively affect their business, we’re in real trouble.”

He pointed to spiralling costs and delays as evidence of a system in disarray.

“The Lower Thames Crossing has cost more than a quarter of a billion pounds just in planning and paperwork – not a single spade in the ground.

“It has cost us more to plan the crossing than it cost Norway to construct the world’s longest tunnel.

“HS2 is now the world’s most expensive railway line. The planning application to reopen the old 3-mile Portishead railway line is 80,000 pages long – with over 1,000 pages dedicated to bats.”

HOUSING CRISIS

Almost half (47%) of landlords said planning reform alone will not solve Britain’s housing crisis, citing a chronic shortage of construction workers as a greater obstacle. Respondents said government housebuilding targets were “impossible to achieve with current levels of skills available”.

One landlord running a development company said: “The shortage of trades is very limiting.”

Despite ministerial pledges to accelerate housebuilding and reform planning, investors remain unconvinced that the measures will unlock supply or ease pressure on the private rented sector.