Tories Taken To Task On House Building

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Yet another fall in house building shows the Conservative party needs to match Labour in its commitment to building new homes, says the Federation of Master Builders.

This comes as the latest S&P Global/CIPS UK Construction PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index) report has been released.

Brian Berry, chief executive of the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) says: “Small, local housebuilders are struggling in a market that has seen the fastest decline in residential construction since May 2020, which was when the country was gripped by the Covid pandemic.

“At a time when we need to be building more homes we are moving in the opposite direction and building fewer. There is a whole generation of people who can’t get on the housing ladder, which is holding back growth and investment. While it might be politically easy to shelve housing commitments to gain votes in some areas, the government must recommit to their annual housing target of 300,000 homes.

“This latest data makes for worrying reading, it is the sixth month in a row that residential building has declined and if you discount the exceptional circumstances of the pandemic, it’s the lowest housing delivery for over 14 years.”

Labour

Meanwhile, Berry has congratulated Sir Keir Starmer for saying the Labour Party will back house builders to deliver more homes.

He says: “It’s positive news that the Labour Party is backing builders to deliver more homes and committing to remove the blockages stopping them from being delivered. However, it’s critical that small local housebuilders have the opportunity to build many of these new homes given they currently deliver just 10% of all new homes, down from 40% over 30 years ago.”

Show some ambition

Berry concludes: “I’m concerned the government lacks a clear plan to solve the housing crisis, resulting in overcrowding and increasingly unaffordable rents as more cling on to rental properties as the new housing market shrinks. While there are long term issues to solve with the planning system, this government and the next need to take the bull by the horns and restate an ambition to build new homes.”

Picture: The Federation of Master Builders says the current party in power needs a plan to follow the stance of the opposition on stimulating house building.

www.fmb.org.uk

Article written by Cathryn Ellis
20th July 2023

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