HBA: Housing White Paper lacks ambition
National Federation of Builders
The Government has pledged to fix the UK’s ‘broken’ housing market ahead of publishing its long-awaited Housing White Paper.
The white paper will reportedly include £3 billion in loans to small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) with the aim of helping them build 25,000 new homes by 2020 and 225,000 in the long-term. Starter homes are also part of the white paper and will be reserved to people on low-incomes, earning less than £90,000 a year in London and £80,000 across the UK.
The House Builders Association (HBA) is disappointed by the lack of ambition in the Housing White Paper, according to these early reports.
The Government’s pledge to loan £3 billion to SMEs is outdated and shows its failure to enable SME house builders to play a greater role in addressing the housing crisis. The Government can only see SMEs delivering an extra 25,000 homes out of the 900,000 we need to build over the next three years. In addition, the continued focus on policies aimed more at stoking demand, rather than helping build new homes, shows that the Government has not learned from its past mistakes.
Rico Wojtulewicz, policy advisor for the HBA, said: “If briefings are to be believed, the Housing White Paper is an inadequate proposal that misunderstands the market, does not stimulate competition, and continues to focus on demand and volume over placemaking.”
Richard Beresford, chief executive of the NFB, said: “When Theresa May took office, she pledged to deliver an economy that works for everyone. If people can’t afford the most basic requirement such as a roof over their head, then the White Paper has failed.”
