Homes England's figures for 2025/26 landed last week, and the temptation in Whitehall to call this a turning point will be strong. The agency enabled just over 40,000 completions, its best year since 2020, alongside more than 42,000 starts on site, and it beat two of its three government targets while lifting completions for social rent by 65 per cent, the tenure that matters most to people in greatest need. For an agency that has spent much of the past decade fielding critic

By the time a scheme reaches committee, many of the most influential decisions have already been settled. Development consultants working at this stage rarely make fundamental changes to a scheme, but those involved earlier can shape outcomes while options remain open. The real cost drivers of a site are often set early, before they appear on drawings. Access, topography, services, heritage and context can dictate viability if they are treated as assumptions rather than varia