The Infrastructure and Planning Bill was introduced to parliament yesterday as part of the government’s wide-ranging campaign to deliver 1.5 million homes over the next few years.

In response, Brendan Geraghty, CEO at ARL (pictured above), has welcomed how the bill places particular importance on BTR.

“With the ability to deliver two million additional, quality rental homes, BTR is an essential part of a diversified housing mix, one which the government itself has explicitly recognised in the revised NPPF, and thus the understanding of the BTR proposition and development dynamics is vital for local planning committees and officials,” said Brendan.

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“Pulling the BTR lever is a proven way of increasing the volume and speed of housing delivery, as well as attracting investment into the UK.

“The government must now build on these planning reforms to remove barriers to large scale investment in housing and increase its support of the rental living sector.”

Building on this, the ARL wants to see greater recognition now given to the ARL’s ‘Build to Rent Code of Practice’ initiative which the trade body is currently consulting on.

Brendan added: “We feel this principle should now be applied to the mandatory training proposed in the Planning & Infrastructure Bill and the ARL, on behalf of the BTR sector, stands available to the government to deliver this.”