Reform’s annual party conference was an eventful one. On Friday 4 September, the main day of the conference, much of the discussion between attendees, and across national media, centred on a Channel 4 undercover investigation into foreign donations, which had been broadcast the previous evening.

But aside from the scandal – which forced two senior party officials to step down pending the outcome of an internal investigation – the conference offered one of the first proper glimpses into the party’s proposed policy agenda and early reaction to it.

After navigating a chaotic queueing system into the NEC in Birmingham, Property Week joined delegates at this year’s three-day event. Reform had doubled its space at the NEC from last year’s conference – likely a reflection of the party’s growth over the last 12 months.

There was a constant bustle around the main stage, where key speeches by the party’s MPs and other spokespeople took place, while delegates were sparse further back in the hall.

Planning solutions

The headline policy news came from the launch of a ‘Planning Teal Paper’, the party’s version of a green paper and its most comprehensive set of policy proposals yet.

Deputy leader and housing spokesperson Richard Tice unveiled the paper at the conference’s ‘business day’ on Thursday, describing a “menu of solutions” to halt Britain’s housing crisis and reverse the decline of town centres. Tice called the paper a consultation document, with the party inviting feedback before committing to delivering anything in a potential government.

The proposals include a string of major reforms, including scrapping affordable housing requirements for developers on brownfield sites, except for in England’s five largest cities. In those conurbations, 5% affordable housing would be required on developments of 20 homes or more.

The paper focuses on brownfield development, proposing a national policy presumption for brownfield residential schemes to be approved in all but the most exceptional cases, while scrapping Community Infrastructure Levy, biodiversity net gain and Section 106 payments for those schemes.

All spatial development strategies, including the London Plan, would be scrapped and nationally imposed housing targets removed, while all but ‘necessary’ external and internal standards in the building regulations regime would also be removed.

‘Build, Britain, build’ was the key theme of Tice’s keynote speech. “I announced proposals to ease and incentivise more brownfield homes in our town centres,” he said, adding: “We can prioritise more brownfield development, less greenfield development, which is the right thing to do.

That way we can re-energise our broken town centres.”

Just scrapping Section 106 isn’t going to deliver the desired outcome
Kate Henderson, NHF

Tice also said Reform would boost social housing delivery and committed to the party building an extra 50,000 affordable social homes every year. “Again, we know how to do this stuff, because we are builders,” he added.

The conversation on planning policy shifted to several of the conference’s panel discussions, where views on the paper were split. One speaker, National Housing Federation (NHF) chief executive Kate Henderson, praised the party’s “emphasis on building more socially affordable homes”, as well as its focus on revitalising local high streets.

However, she criticised the plan to remove all Section 106 financial payments for brownfield residential developments, calling on the party to “look at the role of Section 106 and what it has delivered over the last couple of decades”.

“There are complications around conditions, around viability,” she said. “There are huge complications around lack of funding for regeneration, land remediation and all of that. But sites where Section 106 works well can deliver much faster. I would strongly argue that just scrapping Section 106 isn’t going to deliver the desired outcome of letting the market deliver more homes.”

Andrew Taylor, group planning and sustainability director at Vistry Group, agreed, adding that Section 106 was an “important part” of delivering large-scale developments.

He also acknowledged the challenges of Section 106 for small housebuilders, adding that “there’s been a whole set of issues around it” and that “it’s a worthwhile conversation to be had”.

Francesca O’Brien, Reform’s shadow minister for local government, housing and planning in Wales, argued that councils should be held accountable for unused Section 106 payments.

She told delegates: “It’s about time the planning departments start paying the price. The planning departments need to up their game, and if they’re not discharging the money to the communities, penalise them. You’ve got to treat them like businesses.”

This follows analysis from the Home Builders Federation (HBF) in April that revealed the total value of developer contributions held unspent by local authorities in England and Wales had reached £9bn.

Neil Jefferson, chief executive of the HBF, spoke during the panel to highlight that the unspent funding was still sitting on local authority to-do lists and was sometimes “beyond the control of the developer”.

It’s about time the planning departments start paying the price
Francesca O’Brien, Reform

He also welcomed proposals to curtail the scope for judicial reviews on planning decisions and generally streamline national planning policy, saying they were “definitely steps in the right direction”.

However, Jefferson said he was not a fan of scrapping housing targets. “At the back end of the Conservative government, when local housing targets were dismantled, that led to a massive decline in housing in many areas,” he said. “I would urge Reform to think carefully before going down that route.”

Dan Thomas, leader of Reform UK Wales, said that taking away housing targets would not necessarily result in a drop in sites coming forward. “The sites will come up anyway,” he explained. “It happens in Wales where you’ve got good sites, farmland next to a road, down from a train station, or where there’s an existing town, the free market tends to free up the sites.”

He also took aim at local plans – which the party wants to scrap. “Local plans take forever,” Thomas said. “They’re very expensive. I just think it’s the wrong approach personally.”

Labour’s approach

Reform figures including Chris Eynon, leader of Sunderland City Council, were keen to criticise Labour’s approach to building and governing. Eynon warned that the current approach to devolving powers locally was at odds with the housing needs of local areas.

“In the near future, the question is going to be: is the clout of the planning committee going to lie with the local council, which we elect, or is it going to be with a regional mayor, who in the North East has a very different outlook than a lot of what we stand for in terms of local planning?” he said.

Eynon also backed Reform’s approach to brownfield-first and strategic developments to “supercharge the local economy”.

The party has given a deadline of 31 December for responses to the policy paper, meaning a finalised planning policy should be announced in full next year.

Focus on immigration

Immigration concerns were also, predictably, a common talking point at the conference. Christopher Howarth, parliamentary liaison for right-wing think tank Centre for a Better Britain, said the increase in house prices and challenges in the market came down to two elements: supply and demand.

“We have a growing population,” he added. “Between 2005 and 2024, 68% of our population growth was due to immigration, and in the rented sector, 80% of new rentals go to people who have just arrived in the country.

“A reform on reducing immigration takes potentially 70% of your problems out, but there’ll be huge pent-up demand. […] It’s not just that everyone needs a house; people need bigger houses. They want to start families.

And, dare I say it, people might even want a second house.”

Eynon said: “A few years ago, the previous council declared [Sunderland] a city of sanctuary for asylum seekers, which caused a lot of consternation locally. In a single year, we had a 523% increase, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, on the social housing lists.

“We need to reset that relationship in our nomination agreement with the local housing association and have a way that folks who have lived locally should really be at the top of the queue.”

Thomas argued that tackling immigration would boost the availability of social housing across the country, adding that the UK needed a “fairer” system that prioritised local people.

“We cannot live in a society where people have lived in an area all their lives and they see people come from other countries five or six years ago and be housed in a new development, while they’re waiting for a house.

“I’m sorry, some of you may not like that, but that’s what Reform is all about, and that’s what the people out there want us to do.”