Philip Barnes

Quartermain and Ricketts in their rightful place. Elevated above the throng.

👏👏👏

THE BEST APPROACH TO MAKING CHEAPER HOMES MORE AFFORDABLE IS TO BUILD MORE LARGER HOMES If this simple truth seems counter intuitive you are not alone. At another enjoyable ‘discussion dinner’ last week, my key takeaway was the lack of understanding about market filtering.…

Plug for new blogpost on research we commissioned from Public First on housing market filtering. Clearly shows that the best way to improve affordability for lower income households (owner occupiers and renters) is to build more larger homes.
philipbarnesblog.wordpress.com/2025/05/16/t...

Inspirational first ever joint Barratt Redrow Group Leadership Conference. Fantastic speakers all day, summed by CEO reminding us of the most important takeaways: customer focus, safety and growth. #excitingtimes

Thanks Tom

Thanks Barratt - fantastic 12 years doing the best job in the world.
Too many (internal & external) to thank on here but insane not to mention Steven Boyes. Housebuilding giant, role model, mentor.
Will be tears on 30 June - but decision made and looking forward to what happens next! No plans yet!

DEVOLVED AND DIVIDED – A (DIS) UNITED KINGDOM FOR HOUSING DELIVERY? MHCLG are currently delivering seismic planning reforms in England, all aimed at accelerating housing delivery and addressing the housing crisis. With Barratt Redrow grasping the opportunity with b…

Plug for new blogpost on the different approaches to addressing the housing crisis across the UK. Really important issue IMHO - problems are similar but the different solutions are storing up huge societal problems in Scotland and Wales
philipbarnesblog.wordpress.com/2025/04/24/d...

Planorak alert.
From random 1988 appeal.
1 Brevity - 2.5 pages
2 SoS Appeal but PINS decision?
3 Housing Land supply - familiar debates & gerry-mandering
4 HLS position to be agreed with HBF = good.
5 Green buffer - why appeal??
6 Protuberance = good word
services.wiltshire.gov.uk/northplannin...

SPRING STATEMENT : PLANNING REFORM IS FANTASTIC BUT NOT ENOUGH “The OBR forecast of 1.3m homes over the next 5 years is a UK figure whereas the Government target of 1.5m is for England only. Planning is not enough” Nobody can disagree that Lucian C…

Plug for new blogpost. Planning reform is fantastic, and massively helps, but achieving 1.5m homes this Parliament requires a return of demand-side assistance to FTBs. A win-win zero-cost solution.
philipbarnesblog.wordpress.com/2025/03/28/1...

SPRING STATEMENT : PLANNING REFORM IS FANTASTIC BUT NOT ENOUGH “The OBR forecast of 1.3m homes over the next 5 years is a UK figure whereas the Government target of 1.5m is for England only. Planning is not enough” Nobody can disagree that Lucian C…

Plug for new blogpost. Planning reform is fantastic, and massively helps, but achieving 1.5m homes this Parliament requires a return of demand-side assistance to FTBs. A win-win zero-cost solution.
philipbarnesblog.wordpress.com/2025/03/28/1...

Enjoyed The Power Broker - Robert A Caro’s masterpiece biography of Robert Moses and the reshaping of New York. Despite being 1200 pages!
Albeit not keen on Moses’ opinion of planners. 😱😡

Inspirational first ever Barratt Redrow Senior Leadership Meeting.
Great updates on our strategy and growth targets plus superb external perspectives from Neil Jefferson @HomeBuildersFed and Lucian Cook. @Savills

4 tube stops from Kings Cross. 👏👏 LB Waltham Forest.

Normally big fan of @_BusinessLDN (esp John Dickie & Jon Seager but not keen on this article. Highlights well the housing problem but the single solution of, “greater funding for more affordable housing” falls short. London needs more housing of all types and filtering will help.

Genuinely wondering if the people on Linked In giving it 6-nowt on what is and what isn’t Grey Belt, on the basis of this appeal decision or that Committee decision, have forgotten that detailed MHCLG guidance on the matter is expected very soon??

Just a vacant petrol station in Tottenham but in 20 years this site will be seen as changing the UK planning system.
It triggered MPs debating what & who Green Belt is for, led to the idea of Grey Belt, and ushered in a new sensible approach to housebuilding in and around cities

Gotta say the quality of leadership and delivery coming out of MHCLG is staggering. Civil service and Ministerial. So much improvement.
Hope I’m not eating my words when the upcoming Grey Belt guidance comes out!

Building more affordable homes means selling more affordable homes. But how? ….2025 Week 3 – a curate’s egg…… Working week 3 of 2025 brought mixed news. Firstly, the announcement of yet another inquiry in land value capture (LVC), this t…

Plug for new blog on delivering a short-term zero-cost way to address the problem of a lack of demand for s.106 affordable homes.
philipbarnesblog.wordpress.com/2025/01/29/b...

Looking at New York residential development in 1973/74.
Removal of public sector funding support for FTBs, linked to rising build costs, plus flat HPI and difficulties in securing variations to zoning ordinances caused starts and completions to fall off a cliff.
Sound familiar?!

With what’s happening next week thought it best to read The Art of the Deal by Trump.
Actually an interesting book about Development Management.

VOLUME GROWTH: HOW, WHEN, AND HOW MUCH? First working week of 2025 done and what a week it was. Four things stood out. Firstly, and most importantly for everyone in the sector, was the unexpected rise in Government borrowing costs and fa…

Plug for new blog on the how, the when and the how much of volume growth to be delivered by NPPF. Spoiler - a lot, but some affordability risks which look solvable.
philipbarnesblog.wordpress.com/2025/01/13/v...

VOLUME GROWTH: HOW, WHEN, AND HOW MUCH? First working week of 2025 done and what a week it was. Four things stood out. Firstly, and most importantly for everyone in the sector, was the unexpected rise in Government borrowing costs and fa…

Plug for new blog on the how, the when and the how much of volume growth to be delivered by NPPF. Spoiler - a lot, but some affordability risks which look solvable.
philipbarnesblog.wordpress.com/2025/01/13/v...

The Impact of New Housing Supply on the Distribution of Rents | Journal of Political Economy Macroeconomics: Vol 0, No ja

Building houses leads to lower rents. (Latest in a near-infinite series.) www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Ink not dry on NPPF but some saying it’s now time for house builders to step-up on volume!
We will but NPPF volume increases = 2027 not 2025
If planning took <2 years that would help!
Meanwhile - anyone know what’s happening to borrowing costs and the £? #customerconfidence

New data published today on housing associations' finances shows the continued upward trend in spending on repairs and maintenance - this includes work to tackle damp and mould, cladding removal etc.
A few other highlights: 🧵
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/677bf3...

The 1.5 million-home question: Does the government’s planning reform programme add up? Ministers unleashed a barrage of planning reforms in the dying days of 2024. Joey Gardiner asks if these can give the industry the boost it needs to get anywhere close to the government's ambitious ho...

Pleased to be quoted in this article on NPPF by Joey Gardiner for @BuildingNews.
My focus is on the new approach to applications for housing on Grey Belt - affordable housing at 15% above local target. Much improved on Draft NPPF IMHO.
www.building.co.uk/features/the...

Thanks Anna - really helpful.

Important piece in the FT last week from Neil Hudson at Built Place on the importance of new build statistics.
Extract on the diversification of the sector below - not to be taken as underplaying the importance of continuing to diversify and support SMEs.

Genuinely feels like a great day for those of us who want to see more new homes built.
New NPPF creates the opportunity to deliver more homes, in the right places and of the right design and quality.
Everyone in @BarrattRedrow ready to respond and rolling sleeves up.