Housing Today launches campaign for A Fair Deal for Housing

Housing Today has this morning launched a campaign to increase housebuilding to 300,000 homes year and beyond.

The campaign, called A Fair Deal for Housing, calls on the government to re-commit to its manifesto pledge of building 300,000 homes a year by the middle of the decade. This follows ministers appearing to back away from promising to meet the pledge and the government scrapping some of its proposed radical planning measures to boost delivery.

Housing Today will over the next few months look at current barriers to increasing delivery and work with the industry to develop a detailed package of solutions and asks for the government.

The campaign kicks off by listing several key issues currently blocking development and discusses potential solutions. During the campaign, we will be looking at the funding of planning, uncertainty over planning reform, the difficult funding environment for housing associations and the lack of SME housebuilders in the market. We will look at the fairness of regulation in the housebuilding industry and at the way fire safety remediation costs are being apportioned within the construction sector.

Over the coming weeks we want to hear from the housing sector about any other barriers to development and potential solutions. We will work to deliver a series of concrete asks to put to ministers, along with an offer from the industry, later in the year. We know that given the right support, the housing industry will help the government meet its objectives to “build beautiful”, improve quality and safety, boost home ownership, embed energy efficiency and level up the UK.

The campaign is backed by the Home Builders Federation, the G15 group of housing associations in London, the National Federation of Builders (including the House Builders Association)  the British Property Federation , Federation of Master Builders and the Land Promoters and Developers Federation.

Geeta Nanda, chair of the G15 and chief executive of Metropolitan Thames Valley, said: “G15 members build around three-quarters of all affordable homes in London each year, and 15% of all those built across the country.

“This campaign rightly identifies practical steps the government can take to support us to build the homes it has long agreed the country needs.”

Geeta Nanda, chair of the G15

“We want to work with government to make sure that we can boost the delivery of new homes further, while we also make important investments in our existing homes to improve standards.

“With challenges around building safety costs falling to not-for-profit providers, as well the costs of achieving net zero, and rising construction costs, this campaign rightly identifies practical steps the government can take to support us to build the homes it has long agreed the country needs.”

Stewart Baseley, chief executive of the Home Builders Federation, said: “We have been underdelivering on homes in this country for decades. Recent years have seen supply double, but we are still well short of delivering the number of homes we need.

 “As we look to increase supply further, we are facing a growing list of challenges. The regulatory burden continues to increase and threaten site viability, while the planning process remains frustratingly slow and unresponsive. Housebuilders now face a difficult operating environment.

“Building more homes, as called for by Housing Today’s A Fair Deal for Housing campaign, is essential and will provide significant social and economic benefits for every area of the country.”

Stewart Baseley, executive chair, HBF

“We need government to work with industry to create a policy regime that is pro-business and pro-development and allows the industry to grow and deliver. Building more homes, as called for by Housing Today’s A Fair Deal for Housing campaign, is essential and will provide significant social and economic benefits for every area of the country.” 

Melanie Leech, chief executive of the BPF, said: “The only way to reduce rents and make house-buying more affordable for more people is to increase the supply of new homes.

“That’s why we were so pleased that a pledge to build 300,000 homes per year was reaffirmed as a manifesto commitment back in 2019. The development of purpose-built rental on brownfield sites has grown significantly over the past decade but more needs to be done to encourage all types of housing development. This requires better planning polices and resources and a step change in the financing of affordable housing, as we have set out recently in this paper on affordable housing.”

A Fair Deal for Housing campaign

Housing Today believes the government should not back away from its manifesto pledge of building 300,000 new homes a year by the middle of the decade. We badly need more homes and a lack of supply is a major factor in creating problems of affordability for both buyers and renters.

Over the next few months, Housing Today  will be exploring potential solutions to help us ramp up housebuilding to 300,000. These are likely to, include different ways of working, funding asks of government and policy ideas that could boost housebuilding.

We want to hear from you: what do you think can make a difference at a policy level?

What can the industry do better?

We believe that, with the right commitments from ministers and the industry, it is possible to build more homes and help the government to meet its objectives to “build beautiful”, improve quality and safety, boost home ownership and level up the UK.

Click here to find out more about the campaign

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