The Bishop of Chelmsford received the following written answers on 21st May 2026:
The Lord Bishop of Chelmsford asked His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to support SME builders in order to diversify the housebuilding sector.
Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab, DHCLG): Small and medium sized housebuilders are essential to meeting the government’s housing ambitions and supporting local economies. The government is acting to support SME housebuilders by increasing their access to land, providing further financial assistance and easing the burden of regulation. To that end, the new £16 billion National Housing Bank, which launched on 1 April, is designed to unlock £53 billion of private investment and support the building of over 500,000 new homes including through loans and financial support for SMEs. We have also doubled the ENABLE Build Guarantee scheme to boost SME access to finance. We are making more Homes England land available to the sector through SME-only land sales with less bureaucratic sales process. We have also committed to simplifying the planning system with proposals for a new medium site size definition with corresponding policy and regulatory easements to help SME housebuilders thrive and grow. The government continues to engage closely with SME developers and representative bodies to better understand the barriers they face and ensure the sector can play a greater role in delivering new homes.
The Lord Bishop of Chelmsford asked His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to speed up housing delivery on stalled sites where planning has been granted but development has not started.
Baroness Taylor of Stevenage: In May 2025, the government published a Planning Reform Working Paper: Speeding Up Build Out inviting views on further action the government should take to speed up homes being built. It can be found on gov.uk here. On the same day, we launched a technical consultation on implementing measures to improve the transparency of build rates from new residential developments, which includes proposals to implement provisions in Section 113 of the LURA on the power to decline to determine applications. That consultation can be found on gov.uk here. We are now analysing the responses to both consultations, and we will set out our next steps in due course. Between 16 December 2025 and 10 March 2026, we consulted on a new NPPF. The consultation on the revised Framework, which can be found on gov.uk here, included proposals designed to ensure major development proposals are capable of being implemented within a reasonable period – taking into account tenure mix, local market conditions and development history of the site. We are currently analysing the feedback received and will publish our response in due course.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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