A short supply of land, combined with the slow planning process, has increased competition among house builders to acquire the right site. According to Mary Miller, managing director of Westbury West Midlands, current land supply is the root cause of the problem. "Too little land is being released too slowly for development. While guidelines say that councils should decide on most planning applications for ten or more houses within a maximum of eight weeks, only 16 per cent of decisions are actually being made in that time," she says. "The viability of some new developments is also being threatened by the demand for social housing, excessive public consultation and higher cash payments to councils to improve the infrastructure, in return for planning permission." According to Ms Miller, there is little incentive for local councils to speed up the planning process as developments are costly in terms of infrastructure and often unpopular with existing residents. Local authorities have few positive incentives to build, and few sanctions if they fail to meet targets, while the planning framework could respond better to market signals and take better account of costs and benefits of developments. Contrary to belief, housebuilders only hold about one to two years' supply of land with detailed planning permission, the highest proportion of their estate portfolio being strategic land which is subject to planning consents. The Government has given extra funds to planning departments to train new staff, but accepts most councils are missing deadlines. The real problem, Ms Miller argues, is not with the slow consideration of individual applications, but with the consultation that goes into large-scale plans. House building is now at its lowest level since 1924, and the gap between supply and demand continues to widen by 60,000 annually. An average of 219,000 new households is created each year through longer lifespan, more solo-living from choice and an increasing divorce rate which is set to top 1.1 million in England by 2020. While many house builders are reluctant to invest in brownfield development and low levels of innovation, Westbury is making significant strides in these areas, in terms of its technical expertise and less labour- intensive forms of construction. The development of brownfield sites requires specialist expertise, particularly where there are environmental considerations to be addressed in terms of land contamination. As the house building sector continues to suffer from significant skill shortages, Ms Miller believes the industry could do more to promote the merits of its trades by spelling out the job opportunities and financial returns for bricklayers, carpenters, plumbers, plasterers, roof tilers and electricians. On the plus side, Westbury is finding the introduction of Space4 - its fast-build construction system - is helping to overcome some of these shortages, but is still heavily reliant on experienced bricklayers, plumbers and plasterers. While the tide has turned on interest rates, the increase in interest rates to four per cent will not have a significant impact on the region's house building sector. "The increase has not deterred purchasers," says Ms Miller. | 
