Infrastructure must support ambitious new housing developments if communities are to succeed
When residents of an area hear about a new housing development being built, reactions can be mixed, but one thing that is guaranteed to be raised is infrastructure. Whether that’s more civil focused items like roads, bridges, drainage, water and energy supply, or essential amenities like doctors, schools, and transport links, a new housing development cannot exist in isolation from infrastructure.
Typically, concerns are flagged about strain on existing infrastructure without investment or expansion from housing developers. The government’s pledge to build 1.5 million new homes has set an ambitious pace for the construction industry, and infrastructure sits parallel to this. Guidance has been released with ‘golden rules’ for developers when building new homes, such as investing in local services including GPs, nurseries and green spaces.
However, with so many new homes required across a broad spectrum of needs and prices, developers face tough decisions about where to use their budgets.
What we need to see is greater emphasis on creating towns and neighbourhoods that work for both the developers and the existing communities. This work of ‘placemaking’ is vital to building real communities that people can invest in; where they can live, work, and relax. Infrastructure has never simply been about roads and drainage – it encompasses utilities, highways, public transport, schools, healthcare provision and the wider services that allow communities to function.
Encouraging people to buy into a community in every sense means they become emotionally and economically invested. We cannot ask people to commit like this without also supporting them with appropriate services and infrastructure. Without this, vital services and transport connections are lost, and developments are less likely to be welcomed, even in places where homes are badly needed.
As developers contend with affordable housing requirements, biodiversity net gain obligations, and an ever-expanding list of planning conditions, supporting infrastructure is slipping down the list of priorities. In many cases it remains on the drawing board until the later stages of planning, only for significant issues to emerge that delay projects or require costly redesigns.
It is difficult to reconcile delays and inconsistencies in infrastructure support across developments with a national commitment to accelerate housing delivery. Even more so when the delays arise after planning permission has already been granted.
However, this is not because there is no desire to build infrastructure or make good communities and places for people to live. On the contrary, delays are often because of trying to make spaces more inclusive and better to live in, but the planning system compounds challenges such as technical approvals, planning permissions, and even having consistent staffing on projects throughout a process.
It is unfortunate that these delays have become increasingly common, adding substantial cost and uncertainty to projects and by extension, uncertainty to the contractors and subcontractors that rely heavily on keeping to schedule.
Utilities present a similar contradiction. Access to power is taking longer to secure and becoming significantly more expensive, yet the industry is simultaneously being encouraged to adopt electric plant and equipment to reduce emissions on site.
The power bottleneck for new developments also drastically impacts project delivery, causing delays for one third of businesses, increasing costs for 32 per cent and obstructing energy transition plans for a quarter. The ambition to decarbonise construction is the right one, but without investment in the supporting infrastructure, the industry is being asked to meet expectations that are often beyond its control.
None of this is an argument against higher environmental standards or better placemaking. The difficulty is that every additional policy requirement carries financial and programme implications, and those pressures are coming at a time when inflation, taxation, labour shortages and material costs continue to challenge project viability. Schemes that once appeared commercially sound can quickly become complicated. When delays within the planning system and utility provision are added to that equation, it leaves developers with difficult decisions about whether projects can proceed at all.
This uncertainty highlights that greater emphasis must be placed on the systems enabling development to happen: faster technical approvals, better coordination between planning authorities, utility providers and developers, and earlier collaboration across the project team to ensure infrastructure is designed and delivered alongside housing rather than after it. Without that shift in thinking, the industry risks spending more time navigating avoidable delays than building the homes the country urgently needs.
Infrastructure is the foundation upon which successful developments depend. If we genuinely want to create thriving communities rather than simply hit housing targets, infrastructure must stop being viewed as a secondary consideration. Until it is treated as such, the ambition to significantly increase housing delivery will remain far harder to achieve than the headline figures suggest.
Tom O’Brien
www.obriencontractors.co.uk
Tom O’Brien is Director at Midlands-based construction firm, O’Brien Contractors. O’Brien Contractors delivers total project solutions across civil engineering, construction and sports projects in the Midlands and beyond. Building on over 65 years of experience, the contractor combines impressive people with top quality execution to consistently deliver the best products for its clients.