Taylor Wimpey lashes out at land bank plans

Taylor Wimpey has lashed out at government plans to introduce “use it or lose it” clauses to clamp down on land banking. The housebuilder’s boss, Pete Redfern, said it was “frustrating” that the proposals were back on the agenda after a series of government-commissioned reviews had warned of the downsides of the policy. Taylor Woodrow has a “strategic” land bank of nearly 150,000 plots, on top of 40,000 plots with planning permission. Redfern said: “We have no sites that we are not progressing. Every single site we have we are trying to build on, yet we’re taking it through the planning system.” He said Taylor Wimpey could not build on some sites because of additional issues, such as achieving approval to lift a tree protection order or getting through other pre-conditions. “It would be far better for people to spend the time understanding what the barriers to development are,” he said. “It would make no rational sense for us to sit on a site.” The Times (£)   To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews