8 Sept 2025
THE STATISTICS ARE STARK: 50% of residential planning permissions in the UK never get built, while £12 billion worth of regeneration projects remain stalled across the country. Against this backdrop of delivery failure, a new development playbook is struggling to emerge - one that prioritises data-driven decision making, genuine partnerships, and long-term strategic thinking over the quick wins and generic solutions that have dominated the sector for decades.
Impact Data Metrics brought together six sector leaders to dissect what's going wrong and identify the development strategies that actually work. Their insights reveal an industry at a crossroads, where traditional approaches are failing but proven alternatives are beginning to transform how Britain builds.
THE STAKES
The next twelve months will be crucial in determining whether the UK can seize
regeneration opportunities - and whether the government can get close to meeting its own ambitious housing targets.
Our panel sets out below a playbook for overcoming hurdles, confronting delivery realities and adapting strategies accordingly. The end game they describe is about enabling more delivery at a scale and working at a pace that will make a positive difference.
They all feel the opportunities are significant, but realising them requires honest assessment and collaborative approaches that this discussion exemplified. The traditional development and infrastructure playbook is not working to drive economic growth . The replacement is emerging from projects that prioritise evidence over assumption, partnership over transaction, engaging community buy-in and long-term value over short-term gain. The question they ask is simply this: does the industry have the courage to embrace it?
1. REPLACE GENERIC RESEARCH WITH GRANULAR INTELLIGENCE
The development industry has a data problem. After two decades of recycling the same economic research, major projects are being designed around assumptions rather than evidence - with predictably expensive consequences.
"Ambition and vision are great, but there has to be a robust understanding of where you are now," argues Geoff Wainwright, CEO of Impact Data Metrics. "It's only by having that grounding that you can ask the key questions and consider what it's actually going to take to make your vision reality."
The £3 billion Thames Enterprise Park project illustrates this approach in action. When the former Coryton Oil Refinery redevelopment stalled in its initial planning process, developer Almcor commissioned detailed data analysis to consider options beyond the original standard logistics scheme. The insight revealed that the site's 2.5-kilometre Thames Estuary frontage and proximity to container ports created unique opportunities for port-related industries - a strategy that aligned with regional economic strengths and, national and global market trends.
"Sites on this scale are certainly complex," explains Rupert Wood, who led the strategic reassessment. "We needed to step back and ask: what are we actually trying to achieve? The insight – from Impact Data Metrics - showed us opportunities we'd overlooked with conventional thinking."
Set across 667 acres, the reimagined development will bring forward a greater port-orientated focus alongside the 3.7 million sq ft of space specifically designed for manufacturing, logistics, and energy operations which will capitalise on the key strategic Estuary location.
This kind of precision matters beyond individual projects. CBRE, which handles 25% of global real estate investment transactions, increasingly relies on granular local data to guide capital allocation decisions. In an environment of heightened uncertainty due to geopolitical events and market volatility, data provides the certainty that investors desperately need.
"We're seeing a fundamental shift in how investment decisions are made," said Iain Jenkinson from CBRE. "Generic market reports aren't cutting it anymore when you're deploying hundreds of millions of pounds."
Impact Data Metrics maintains a repository of over 15 billion records about UK companies, precisely located and continuously updated. This enables what Wainwright calls "making sense of place and space"—understanding not just what's there now, but what economic ecosystem could realistically develop. Katie Wray from Deloitte Real Estate emphasizes how this data enables continuous monitoring rather than post completion analysis: "You can build in monitoring around trends to understand every two or three years whether you're actually shifting the dial, rather than waiting a decade to find out if your strategy worked."
2. BUILD PARTNERSHIPS THAT UNLOCK VALUE, NOT JUST SITES
The UK's most challenging and complex regeneration sites require more than planning permission and development finance - they need genuine partnerships willing to understand and take long-term risks for long-term gains to support and drive economic growth.
ECF's Manor Road Quarter in Canning Town demonstrates this approach. While nearby
Stratford benefited from Olympic investment and Canary Wharf enjoyed decades of
development, Canning Town had been overlooked despite its strategic location in East
London.
ECF - a partnership between Muse, Homes England, and L&G - committed to creating a
proper neighbourhood. Manor Road Quarter is the latest manifestation of its strategy: 804 sustainable homes (50% affordable), business and retail space, and a 2.9-acre park. The financial structure helped unlock the physical development.
"ECF exists to go into areas where there's private sector failure," explains Elizabeth Oliveira from Muse. "Going back in time to when ECF became involved, Newham Council didn't have many partners to choose from, but they needed someone with genuine staying power who could have a catalytic effect."
Rather than demanding immediate capital receipts, Newham entered an overage deal that generated significantly more revenue as the area regenerated and property values increased. This required trust between partners and patience from the public sector but inspired interest and confidence for growth extending far beyond the original site.
Tahreen Shad from Lovell highlights another dimension of partnership working: land assembly. "We're dealing with the housing crisis through piecemeal efforts because we can't find sizeable land or get multiple stakeholders aligned. But if you can present compelling data about what's possible, that focuses attention and moves thinking toward solutions."
She felt that many councils and Combined Authorities are increasingly data-driven in their decision-making. House builders and developers who invest in proper analysis and present clear evidence of deliverable benefits can find themselves welcomed as problem-solvers – but making connections to those decision-makers is not always straightforward, and there are significant variations in responsiveness across the country.
3. CONFRONT THE INFRASTRUCTURE REALITY
Britain's development potential, and, as a consequence, its economic growth, is being strangled by decades of infrastructure underinvestment. The numbers are staggering: the Lower Thames Crossing alone cost £1.2 billion just to secure planning permission, while transport projects routinely take longer to plan than to build.
"Much of the core infrastructure in the UK has lacked investment for the last 30-40 years," states Rupert Wood bluntly. "Successive governments have ignored this foundation stone for economic growth."
The government's devolution agenda and planning reform initiatives offer potential solutions, but only if they deliver genuine long-term thinking. Wood expresses cautious optimism: "If the Devolution Bill and Planning and Infrastructure Bill do what they promise - allowing mayors to make decisions on 30-year infrastructure horizons to drive economic growth - it could be transformative for the UK."
However, success requires overcoming political short-termism. Five-year electoral cycles, more often than not, discourages infrastructure investment necessary for meaningful regeneration, because of project timescales and potential loss of votes. This creates potential stagnation in economic growth and what Wood describes as politicians being "reluctant to making the tough infrastructure and development decisions to drive growth due to worries about whether they will lose votes."
For developers, this infrastructure deficit creates both challenges and opportunities. Projects that can demonstrate reduced infrastructure requirements or contribute meaningfully to local capacity have significant competitive advantages. Conversely, developments that assume infrastructure will be provided by others are increasingly likely to stall.
4. FOCUS ON DELIVERY, NOT JUST PLANNING PERMISSION
A counterintuitive insight emerged from the discussion: planning system reform, while important, misses the bigger delivery challenge. The real problem isn't getting permission - it's what happens next.
"It's not necessarily just a planning problem," argues Iain Jenkinson forcefully. "Fifty percent of all residential planning permissions don't get built out. It's not a planning problem - it's a commercial problem."
This challenges the conventional narrative that planning delays are the primary obstacle to development. Instead, sites with planning permission often remain undeveloped due to viability issues, infrastructure constraints, or market conditions that weren't properly understood at the planning stage.
Katie Wray highlights another dimension: the need for flexibility within long-term visions. "A lot of the framework visions we work on are 15-20 year visions. But the key is flexibility – focussing on outcomes from the start rather than dictating what it looks like is really important."
This approach allows developments to adapt to changing market conditions while maintaining strategic coherence. The alternative - rigid masterplans that become obsolete before construction begins - explains many stalled projects.
Elizabeth Oliveira identifies a crucial communication gap: "Planning is not accessible. It's not easily understood. We don't talk in civil language." This barrier contributes to NIMBY opposition and reduces community buy-in for necessary development.
Engaging community stakeholders is key to ensuring that, throughout a development’s
lifetime, the delivery of the vision is seen as beneficial by all.
Successful planning reform must address both process improvements and delivery
mechanisms while ensuring long-term strategic thinking isn't undermined by short-term
political pressures. The focus should be on creating conditions for delivery, not just
streamlining approvals.
5. TRANSFORM THE DEVELOPMENT NARRATIVE
Perhaps the most challenging insight was recognising that the the real estate industry and the local and regional authorities have fundamentally failed to communicate the benefits of economic growth and change to local communities for good. This isn't just a PR problem - it's creating a cultural shift from NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) which is effectively ‘anti-growth’ to more a ‘yes, we do need this as this will help drive growth, improve the local economy and provide modern societal amenities.
Katie Wray identifies a specific UK weakness: "We are not very good at painting positive, evocative visions. People need to be able to look at something and say, 'I can see myself walking down that street. I can see a brighter future.'"
This is compounded by media dynamics favouring negative stories over positive outcomes. As one participant noted: "If it bleeds, it leads. Bad news gets more clicks." Development stories focus on disruption rather than improvement, protests rather than benefits.
Elizabeth Oliveira emphasizes the need for fundamental communication change: "We need to talk more positively and more simply. Make planning accessible. People don't understand the scale of what we're proposing because we don't talk in civil language."
Technical jargon about "mixed-use developments" and "affordable housing percentages" doesn't convey the human benefits of new schools, shorter commutes, or local job creation. The industry needs to rediscover how to tell stories about better lives, not just better buildings.
The solution requires sustained engagement over time, not token consultation events. Projects like ECF's Manor Road demonstrated that bringing communities along the journey requires patience, transparency, and genuine attention to local concerns and benefits.
This means starting community engagement before site acquisition, continuing through
construction, and maintaining relationships after completion. It's expensive and time-
consuming, but increasingly essential for project success.
THE PATH FORWARD: A NEW DEVELOPMENT PLAYBOOK
These insights reveal an industry at an inflection point. Traditional approaches - based on generic market research, adversarial planning processes which appear anti-growth, and limited community engagement - are proving inadequate for modern regeneration challenges to drive economic growth.
THE NEW FUNDAMENTALS
Data First: Invest in granular, location-specific intelligence before developing strategy. Generic market reports are insufficient for complex sites.
Partnership Thinking: Structure deals that align public and private interests over the long term, not just at project completion.
Infrastructure Reality: Design projects around existing capacity or commit to infrastructure provision. Don't assume others will solve connectivity problems.
Delivery Focus: Optimize for build-out, not just planning permission. Consider commercial viability throughout the development process.
Community Storytelling: Invest seriously in communicating vision and benefits. Start early, use plain language, and maintain engagement throughout.
IMMEDIATE ACTIONS
For developers and investors, this playbook suggests specific steps:
• Commission independent data analysis before site acquisition to understand the
opportunities and certainly not after planning submission
• Structure partnerships with overage deals or other long-term value-sharing mechanisms
• Assess infrastructure requirements realistically and budget accordingly
• Develop community engagement strategies before purchasing sites
• Create flexibility within masterplans to adapt to changing conditions
ABOUT IMPACT DATA METRICS
Impact Data Metrics Ltd (“IDM”) is a knowledge and insight generator which supports clients in making better, more informed decisions.
IDM deploys its proprietary AI and machine-learning technologies to ingest, clean, organise and integrate data to allow knowledge generation to take place. We have collated billions of public and semi-public data records which we have refined and structured to answer key questions across Economic Development, Property, Healthcare and Research & Innovation. Adding editorial expertise to the analysis of these proprietary datasets allows us to generate real-time knowledge and insights.
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