OakNorth recently co-hosted a breakfast discussion with the Adam Smith Institute, joined by policymakers, housing experts, and property investors to explore the role Urban Development Corporations (UDCs) could play in addressing the UK’s housing crisis.
The conversation centred on one of the country’s most pressing challenges: how to deliver more homes quicker in places with high demand, and how to overcome the institutional and regulatory barriers that have slowed progress for decades.
The discussion drew on Dwharfing the City, a recent report from the Adam Smith Institute, which puts forward a bold case for reviving and modernising UDCs to support private-sector-led regeneration in key growth zones such as the Thames Gateway, Oxford, Cambridge, and Liverpool.
Restoring the UK’s capacity to build
There was broad consensus that the UK has the capital, land, and demand to support significant housing growth. The missing piece is often coordination between local and national bodies, across sectors, and between policy ambition and delivery.
UDCs were presented as one way to bring greater focus, consistency and speed to large-scale housing and regeneration projects. With the right powers, they could unlock strategic sites and help deliver more homes in places with strong growth potential.
Milton Keynes was highlighted as a standout example as a successful New Town with a growing population, strong transport links, and untapped land for development. The city’s scale, ambition, and challenges highlight both the potential, and the urgency, of better planning and governance models.
Moving beyond targets
While housing targets remain important, participants reflected on the need to shift focus from top-down numbers to the systems that make, or break, delivery. From building safety rules to environmental regulations, it’s often not the lack of will or funding that holds back projects, but a planning environment that is fragmented and slow to respond.
Getting this right will require political leadership, better regulation, and more support for local capacity, especially within under-resourced planning teams.
A collaborative path forward
Solving the housing crisis will take more than legislation or investment alone. It will require public-private collaboration, long-term thinking, and the tools to turn local ambition into action.
As the conversation around planning reform and housing delivery continues, here at OakNorth we remain committed to supporting the people, places and ideas shaping the next chapter in Britain’s growth story.
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