Executive chair Rob Perrins said the ever-lengthening process of securing planning permission, agreeing Section 106 obligations, satisfying statutory consultees, clearing pre-commencement conditions and obtaining Building Safety Regulator approvals was choking investment and stifling housing delivery.

He warned that a further 18 months can be added if schemes end up in appeals or call-ins, leaving developers facing years of uncertainty with no guarantee of securing consent.

Perrins said: “The time taken to deliver new apartment buildings needs to reduce from eight to five years, which it was ten years ago.”

The Berkeley boss argued that excessive bureaucracy had left London delivering less than 10% of its annual housing target, with more homes being lost to other uses than are being built.

He also demanded a radical overhaul of property taxes, calling for stamp duty on all new homes to be capped at 3%, with first-time buyers exempt and additional surcharges on investment purchases scrapped altogether.

Perrins said repeated stamp duty increases had curtailed the early investment needed to de-risk complex brownfield schemes and bring forward affordable homes and build-to-rent developments.

His rare political intervention came as Berkeley reported a resilient performance in a difficult market, posting pre-tax profit of £451.4m for the year to 30 April, down 15% from £528.9m previously. Revenue slipped 4% to £2.38bn while operating margin eased to 18.7% from 20.1%.

The developer delivered 4,203 homes across its wholly owned operations and joint ventures during the year, with 90% built on brownfield regeneration sites. Net cash increased to £363m and net asset value per share climbed 9% to £39.17 despite £233m of share buy-backs.

Berkeley has effectively stopped buying new land while current conditions persist, saying it cannot achieve the returns needed to justify fresh investment given the growing tax and regulatory burden on residential development.

As evidence of a broken system, Perrins highlighted Berkeley’s failed bid to redevelop a run-down shopping centre in Peckham.

The Planning Inspectorate rejected plans for more than 850 homes after ruling the scheme would harm the nearby Peckham Rye Conservation Area – despite the site being earmarked for housing and after ten years of discussions with planners. For Perrins, the decision underlines the growing risk of investing in major regeneration projects when years of work can still end in rejection

Perrins warned that without decisive action to cut red tape, speed up approvals and reduce taxes, London will continue to fall woefully short of the homes it needs.