Britain’s housing crisis won’t be solved by big developers alone
By Greg Malouf, CEO of Romal Capital
The Government’s ambition to deliver 1.5 million homes during this Parliament is both necessary and welcome. Meeting that target, however, will require more than relying on a small number of major volume housebuilders alone. If Britain is serious about accelerating delivery, regenerating communities, and bringing more homes to market across every region, then SME developers must play a far greater role in the national housing strategy.
This is not an argument against large housebuilders. Major developers are critical to delivering large-scale housing supply and infrastructure, and they remain an essential part of the sector. But the housing challenge facing the UK is too significant, and too geographically diverse, to be solved by any one model of development alone.
What SME developers bring is something complementary but equally important: agility, local knowledge, community integration, and the ability to unlock sites that might otherwise remain dormant for years.
Across the country there are countless brownfield plots, stalled regeneration schemes, underused urban sites, and smaller parcels of land that often fall outside the operational focus of national volume builders. These are precisely the kinds of opportunities where SMEs can make an immediate and meaningful impact.
While SME developers can sometimes take longer to get projects moving due to planning complexity, funding constraints, and infrastructure requirements, once enabled they are often highly delivery-focused. Their business models depend on progressing schemes efficiently, bringing homes to market quickly, and recycling capital into the next development. That urgency can make SMEs a powerful contributor to overall housing supply.
Importantly, SMEs also tend to build differently.
Because smaller developers operate closer to the communities they serve, there is often a stronger emphasis on place-making rather than simply unit numbers. Successful regeneration is not just about delivering housing; it is about creating neighbourhoods people genuinely want to live in. That means integrating homes with commercial space, public realm, connectivity, leisure, and community infrastructure.
At Liverpool Waters, we have built over 500 homes and seen first-hand how important this balance is. The long-term success of the masterplan depends not only on residential delivery, but on ensuring commercial, cultural, and community elements evolve alongside it. Homes alone do not create thriving neighbourhoods. Sustainable communities are built through mixed-use integration, employment opportunities, public spaces, and long-term stewardship.
This is why we are proud to be advancing plans at Brunswick Dock, transforming a long-underused waterfront site into a vibrant mixed-use neighbourhood. The vision already existed, but progress required renewed momentum, investment, and delivery focus. By partnering collaboratively and moving decisively, we are helping unlock the next stage of regeneration for this vital part of the Mersey waterfront and inner-city area.
This experience is not unique to Liverpool. Across the UK, there are sites with planning consent and significant potential that require fresh energy, partnership, and delivery capacity to move forward. SME developers are well placed to provide that momentum.
There is also a growing national conversation around the pace at which consented land is brought forward for delivery. In many cases, sites can remain inactive for years while land values continue to appreciate, despite acute housing need in surrounding communities. This is a complex issue, and there are often legitimate commercial, infrastructure, and planning reasons for phased development. However, there is also a strong case for Government intervention that encourages earlier activation of viable sites and discourages long-term inactivity where delivery could otherwise proceed.
One potential solution could involve reviewing statutory land holding costs or introducing stronger fiscal incentives tied to delivery timelines on consented land. The objective should not be to penalise responsible long-term development, but to ensure that strategically important sites contribute to housing supply within reasonable timeframes. Greater collaboration between larger landowners and SME developers could also form part of the solution, enabling portions of major sites to be accelerated through diversified delivery partnerships rather than relying on a single build-out model over extended periods.
Unlocking brownfield land in particular should become a national priority. Many of these sites are complex and require patient capital, remediation, infrastructure investment, and creative thinking. Yet they also represent some of the greatest opportunities to deliver sustainable housing growth without placing additional pressure on greenbelt or sensitive landscapes.
Greg Malouf, CEO of Romal Capital
SME developers are often particularly well suited to unlocking these overlooked or challenging sites because of their flexibility, local focus, and willingness to work through complexity. However, where Government funding and infrastructure support are provided to unlock strategic land, there should also be clearer delivery expectations attached. Public support should help accelerate homes to market within agreed timescales, ensuring that land intended for regeneration contributes meaningfully to housing supply rather than remaining dormant while values continue to rise.
There are also broader economic and social benefits that SMEs contribute.
Many SME developers work with local contractors, consultants, and supply chains, helping retain investment within regional economies. They are often embedded in the communities where they operate, giving them a deeper understanding of local priorities and a greater long-term stake in successful outcomes. This can lead to developments that are more responsive to local character, heritage, and community needs.
SMEs can also play an important role in innovation. Without the scale and complexity of larger corporate structures, smaller developers are often able to adopt new approaches more quickly, whether in sustainability, adaptive reuse, low-carbon construction, or design-led regeneration.
None of this diminishes the role of larger developers. In reality, the UK needs both. Large housebuilders deliver scale and strategic infrastructure; SMEs provide flexibility, speed of activation, local regeneration expertise, and diversity of supply. A healthy housing market depends on a balanced ecosystem where both can succeed.
The challenge is that current policy and finance structures do not always reflect that balance, nor do they always support unlocking larger dormant development plots for regeneration through broader delivery partnerships.
If Government wants to maximise housing delivery nationally, it should ensure SME developers have greater access to development finance, proportionate planning pathways, and targeted support for unlocking smaller and more complex regeneration sites. A properly capitalised national SME development finance guarantee scheme could make a transformative difference, particularly for urban regeneration projects that are viable in the long term but difficult to fund upfront.
Equally important is creating a planning environment that rewards delivery and collaboration across the sector, rather than favouring scale alone.
The UK does not lack development ambition. It does not lack capable developers either. What it needs is a broader coalition of delivery partners empowered to bring forward homes in every town and city across the country.
SME developers are not a niche part of that solution. They are a vital part of the national delivery system that can help bring forward thousands of additional homes, unlock stalled regeneration opportunities, and create communities with long-term economic and social value.
If Britain is serious about solving its housing crisis, then supporting SMEs alongside major developers is not optional. It is essential.
