Chancellor George Osborne's Autumn statement unveiled a number of new measures expected to impact the industry.
But there was a decidedly mixed response from various organisations about the various proposals.
The Brick Development Association (BDA) welcomes the news that the Government has committed to investing £7bn into 400,000 new homes.
Simon Hay, CEO of the Brick Development Association comments: “We are pleased by the provision of £7bn for new homes. The focus now must be on turning housing promises into on-the-ground project delivery.
“We look forward making our contribution to addressing the chronic housing shortage that has built up over recent decades. The re-openings and development of new brick plants are already incredibly positive signs in the revitalisation of the housebuilding sector.
“We should take positively from the news that new-build housing has risen by such an extent, and should continue to rise over the next year as more focus is directed towards the current housing situation.”
This follows the news that, in figures released last week by the Department for Communities and Local Government, the amount of new homes built has risen by a quarter on the previous year.
The BDA also welcomes the new levy to provide 3 million apprenticeships, and aims to support brick-related industries to attract an increased number of apprentices and help to address the skills shortage gap.
David Orr, chief executive at the National Housing Federation said: “Two years ago the housing association sector published its Ambition to Deliver. This plan outlined the sector’s goal of building 120,000 new homes a year across all tenures, to every price point of the market. I believe that today’s announcement brings us one step closer to making this a reality.
“This announcement provides the conditions for us to deliver thousands more homes for people at every level of the housing market.
“Shared ownership is a housing association success story - with over 275,000 properties already delivered.
“Housing associations built 40% of all new homes last year, 50,000 in total, and are ready to do even more in close partnership with Government.”
The construction skills shortage could scupper the Chancellor’s vision for 400,000 new affordable homes, warns the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).
Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the FMB, said: “Faced with some difficult decisions regarding public spending cuts, today the Chancellor was right to ‘choose housing’ by prioritising investment in new affordable homes. The Government has confirmed plans to build 200,000 starter homes with 20% discounts for under-40s, 135,000 shared ownership homes, 10,000 rent-to-buy homes and 8,000 specialist properties for the elderly and disabled. This amounts to a £7bn public investment in new homes – a concerted effort to give aspirational home owners a helping hand onto the housing ladder.
“Nevertheless, ‘George the Builder’ will need a new generation of ‘real’ builders to make his vision for housing a reality. We’re already seeing housing developments starting to stall because the cost of hiring skilled tradespeople is threatening to make some sites simply unviable. Unless we see a massive uplift in apprenticeship training in our industry, there won’t be enough pairs of hands to deliver more housing on this scale. That’s why we’re keen for the Government to tread carefully when applying the new proposed Apprenticeship Levy to the construction industry.
“The Chancellor clearly recognises that the crisis of home ownership is inextricably linked to a crisis in house building. We therefore hope that in order to address both, the Government will do everything it can to increase house building capacity. SME developers will have an important role to play in delivering the smaller scale sites across the country. The last time we built in excess of 200,000 homes in one year was in the late 1980s when two-thirds of all homes were built by small developers. SME house builders now only build little over one quarter of all new homes which points to another serious capacity issue – we need more small house builders to enter the market and also for SME house builders to crank up their delivery of new homes in order to build the Chancellors 400,000 new affordable homes.”
