The urgent need to
build more homes for everyone should be a key priority for all the political
parties during the General Election campaign, says the Federation of Master
Builders (FMB).
The FMB is calling on
all the political parties to make house building a national infrastructure
priority, along with 11 other key policy areas in its ‘Programme
for Government’.
The programme calls
for the political parties to commit to the following:
Housing
• Make house building
a national infrastructure priority and build 1.5 million new homes
• Free up more public
land for housing and break it up into small plots for small builders
• Invest in local
authority planning departments to speed up the planning process
Skills
• Promote vocational
education and invest in Further Education
• Reform the UK
Apprenticeship Levy so it works better for small companies
• Introduce a fair and
balanced post-Brexit immigration system
Quality
• Licence all UK
construction companies
• Introduce mandatory
warranties for building control-approved work
• Create a new
‘General Builder’ qualification
Net Zero Carbon
• Create a National
Retrofit Strategy
• Invest in upskilling
builders to build and upgrade homes fit for the future
• Cut VAT on home
improvement work to 5%
Brian Berry, Chief
Executive of the FMB said: “In this Brexit election the main political parties
mustn’t lose sight of the big issues facing the UK such as the current housing
crisis.
"We are still not
building enough new homes, and this has led to an affordability crisis and
over-crowding. This election is an opportunity for all parties to publish
ambitious plans to turn this situation around. Small builders stand ready to
help the new Government not only to build more new homes but also make our
existing homes more energy efficient.
“Small building
companies will also be instrumental in helping the future government tackle
other major challenges facing the UK, from helping to tackle the climate crisis
to helping to building the hospitals and schools of the future.
"Our Programme
for Government gives 12 clear policies for each of the political parties to
adopt to support SME builders. Politicians must not only give the country the
gift of resolving Brexit this Christmas, but also a vision for the future of
our built environment.”
The Programme for
Government is available here: https://www.fmb.org.uk/media/50547/fmb-programme-for-government-2019-2024.pdf.
