The Home Builders Federation (HBF) has expressed support for Government’s steps to tackle the constraints of housing delivery in an industry statement.
The statement, which has been signed by more than 30 home builders, comes in response to the Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Raynor’s statement in the House of Commons outlining proposed planning reforms, including the reintroduction of mandatory local housing targets and releasing of ‘grey belt’ land.
In the statement, the home building industry says it ‘stands ready to’ deliver high-quality and affordable homes at pace, provide skilled jobs and contribute to economic growth.
The statement also makes clear that a range of different actors, including mortgage lenders, housing associations and councils will need to come to together and support the government’s very ambitious housing targets.
Setting out the scale of the challenge, signatories point to the headwinds affecting housing supply today, including a lack of affordable mortgage finance for prospective first-time buyers, nutrient neutrality restrictions holding up the delivery of 160,000 new homes and a lack of capacity in the housing association sector which is making it increasingly difficult for to find providers to acquire and manage new social and affordable homes.
Neil Jefferson, Chief Executive at the Home Builders Federation says: “Today represents the first and most important step ministers have taken in addressing the barriers to delivering new homes.
“The scale of the government’s housing ambition has given hope to the home building industry that stands ready to increase supply and tackle the country’s housing shortage.
“The planning system has long failed to provide the amount of land needed to address affordability pressures, but in recent years the elimination of housing targets has led to housing supply plummeting. A reformed, more progressive planning system that requires local authorities to meet their communities’ housing needs is a major step forward to address the barriers to delivery.
“The housing market is complex and bringing more land through the planning system will help to turn around ailing housing supply provided affordable mortgage finance can be accessed and buyers are able to purchase new homes.”
Richard Beresford, Chief Executive of the National Federation of Builders (NFB), described the announcement as a positive start, but if the Government is serious about building 300,000 homes a year major reform was required which explores what the barriers are, not just to local plans and permissions, but the rules stopping spades going in the ground.
Rico Wojtulewicz, Head of Policy and Market Insight at the NFB, added: “We need to study the full consultation but so far so good. Particularly the mention of strategic planning, bringing back targets and upping the targets. It was also interesting to see the supply target for London reduce by 20,000 to 80,000. This shouldn’t really worry anybody because the capital would still need to double output to reach that figure.
“I would however urge the Government to focus on commercial impacts of the planning process and why diversification is so important to growth.
“SMEs, who typically deliver up to 250 homes a year, weren’t mentioned, despite them training 8 in 10 construction apprentices and being the ones who build the social housing for councils and housing associations. Biodiversity Net Gain also didn’t feature, even though it is likely to scupper affordable housing ambitions and new towns, just like it is scuppering the business models of SMEs. These two examples need to be top of any government’s agenda and we will be working day and night to remind them of that.”
The return of national housing targets is welcome and very much needed, says the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).
Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the FMB commented: “The UK’s planning system has long been in desperate need of reform. Today’s announcement is a statement of intent which will be welcomed by small house builders. The return of national housing targets is good news as is the requirement for councils to demonstrate a five-year land supply for new housing.
“There are fundamental issues with the UK housing system that need tackling to hit the Government’s ambitious targets. We are far too reliant on too few developers to build homes, with smaller developers pushed to one side, damaging competition, and consumer choice.
“The 50% affordable target on brownfield sites is a concern as many small developers can’t get housing associations to buy their section 106 social homes, meaning homes are going unbuilt. Without reform of the social housing system, this will hold back delivery. But behind all of this is a lack of builders to deliver these homes, without a serious plan to boost the vocational skills system in this country, we’ll be unable to deliver 1.5 million homes.”
