The Home Builders Federation has issued a statement pledging to increase house building following government talks…
Major house builders have agreed to raise the number of new homes they will build by 2019. A statement from the Home Builders Federation (HBF) reveals house builders have agreed to push output to more than double the amount built in 2010.
The government pledged to build one million new homes during this parliament, a target that was seen as overly ambitious given the skills shortage facing the sector. In a bid to ensure this target will be met the government has been in talks with the sector.
Already, large sites have doubled their build rates to deliver 30 per cent growth in supply in just two years. The housing supply in 2014/15 also reached over 180,000, with 2015/16 expected to be higher. The federation has been in talks with the government to ensure output continues to increase.
One of the measures aimed to push output will be a ‘land exchange’, which will allow larger builders to sell sites or parts of sites to smaller builders.
HBF’s Executive chairman Stewart Baseley said; “Over the past two years the industry has responded to the positive policies introduced by Government and has delivered huge increases in output.
“All indicators clearly show the significant progress being made and last year we delivered more than 180,000 new homes in England.
“Moving forward the industry is committed to going further, and provided that the political, economic and policy conditions are conducive, to deliver further increases in supply.
“House builders are investing in their supply chains and have taken on tens of thousands of new workers to ensure there is the capacity and skills to deliver more high quality homes.
“Working with Government, and others, we want to ensure that the investment environment remains attractive and that the right measures are in place to support the delivery of the homes the country needs.”
Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis said the commitment was welcomed. “Government has got the house builders building again,” he said.
“This statement of intent shows house builders are committed to continuing the growth in supply we have seen under our administration – building more of the homes that this country needs. I welcome the statement from the HBF and working together this confirms we can achieve our ambition of delivering 1 million homes.
“We have already seen a strong upwards growth in new homes delivered since 2010 and I welcome developers’ plans to share with councils how quickly they will get homes built on sites.
“I’ll continue working with HBF and house builders to see rates of building increase further and look forward to seeing the results their review of larger sites.”
Talks will continue between HBF and the government to identify other ways in which existing sites can increase delivery, and to bring forward new sites.
The full statement can be viewed here: http://www.hbf.co.uk/fileadmin/documents/Policy/Publications/HBF_1_Million_homes_by_2020.pdf
