PPR attends Labour Conference 2025, Liverpool
October 2025
PPR attends Labour Conference 2025, Liverpool
PPR Estates (PPR) joined Labour Government Ministers, MP’s and activists at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool for talks about the housing crisis and planning reform. Representing SME Investor Developers on the Policy Liaison Group (PLG) for Regeneration & Housing Delivery, Nick Hopkinson, PPR Director, shared “real world experiences” of the planning and construction environment, along with ideas on how Labour might address the current policy failures that are destroying the SME housebuilding sector.
It was disappointing to hear Steve Read, the new Housing Secretary, still blaming the previous Government for the failing planning system and focusing on vacuous stunts with his ”build baby build” baseball hat during his keynote speech (see photo below) rather than addressing the housing crisis with serious policy leadership ideas and the necessary detail.
Hopkinson commented “Nearly 18 months in, the Government are overseeing a total collapse in new planning applications. Sadly, Labour are on course to deliver even less new homes than the last Government and will very likely fall -50% below their 2029 new homes target according to latest analysis!
Labour’s housing and growth plans are guaranteed to fail unless they take much bolder action on planning reform, focus government funds more directly towards social housing and unshackle the SME developer sector which historically has delivered nearly half of all new homes but is currently almost nil under a blizzard of bureaucracy and tax uncertainty.
SME developers are not Labour’s enemy – we have lots of practical ideas for building the “decent” homes that Steve Reed claims he wants. Labour Ministers and policy advisors need to listen and act fast if they are serious about addressing the national disgrace of homelessness with over 1.5 million people on emergency housing lists and the associated £2.1 Billion plus annual spend on emergency accommodation, according to the latest official data.”