Housing Minister Mark Prisk joined over 300 industry experts to speak at the Ideal Home Show Blue Ribbon Awards just hours after Chancellor George Osborne announced the Help-to-Buy scheme which aims to boost the housing market with support worth more than £130bn.
Hosted by Architect and TV presenter George Clarke, the Blue Ribbon Awards were revived at this year’s Ideal Home Show and celebrate and acknowledge excellence in building design, sustainability and community development, providing a modern-day benchmark for the consumer housing market.
Talking about his time spent studying Land Management at the University of Reading, Prisk comments: “The Blue Ribbon Awards were one of the leading benchmarks for the industry and regarded by all building professionals as one of the events that people actually wanted to be part of, so it is great that they are coming back.”
Commenting on the current housing market: “Of late we have been experiencing quite a dysfunctional housing market – we haven’t been building what people need and also we haven’t been thinking about the quality.
“Today with the budget we have looked to add investment in to the private rented sector and the affordable housing sector, but also how we can help people struggling to get the deposits together to buy a new home.
“The point about ‘Help-to-Buy’ is to make sure that home buyers and not just first time byers are able to look at those properties that they simply can’t afford. It is a much larger scheme and a scheme that should lever in about £130bn of mortgages in to the housing market. It could have the chance to kick start demand.”
But Quantity is not just the only issue adds Prisk. “It is quite tempting as Housing Minister to focus on the number of units as opposed to number of homes. We need to think about the customer in this.
Commenting on today’s Budget announcement, Award host, George Clarke adds: “I fully support the announcement by the government today for launching the Help-to-Buy scheme – I personally feel that it is long overdue. Any scheme that makes it easier for ordinary people to buy a home has to be welcomed.
“Hopefully this will kick start the housing industry. It’s a bold investment but one that may even see us build our way out of this recession, and will offer further support to the otherwise fledging building industry.”