HBA: A budget is more than just headlines
National Federation of Builders
In the autumn Budget, the Chancellor announced a raft of measures to tackle the growing housing crisis and build on the Housing White Paper.
Pledging to build 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s, the Budget delivered more than removing the stamp duty liability on first time buyers and introduced many measures that the house building industry has been requesting for some time.
Announcing consultations on housing density and the housing delivery test, Hammond also focussed on reforming how local plans identify and support deliverable supply by increasing small site allocations to 20% and removing the exemptions from the deemed discharge rules.
To better comprehend the ‘build-out rate’, Sir Oliver Letwin will look at the significant gap between housing completions the amount of allocated land, and make recommendations for closing it.
The Housing Builders Association (HBA) – the house-building division of the National Federation of Builders (NFB) is delighted with many of the announcements and believes that, if implemented fully, the budget’s ambition to increase house building can deliver immediate results.
Rico Wojtulewicz, senior policy advisor for the HBA, said: “Big announcements on housing have come and gone, as have their promises. However, this budget tackles some of the nuanced conversations that the industry has been having with the Government over the last couple of years.
“The register of planning permissions, increased allocation of small sites, consultations dealing with the reality of delivering homes, and lifting the housing borrowing cap are the headlines we are focussing on. Just like the Housing White Paper, we see this as another example of the Government taking on board the opinion of those who actually build the homes we so desperately need.”
