In its submission, HBF has identified a number of
domestic challenges and issues that Government could work with the industry to
overcome. If actioned, these recommendations will put home builders on a
stronger footing to increase housing delivery further, tackle the housing
crisis and revive the home ownership dream.
All developers, regardless of size, are facing an
extremely challenging business environment, particularly with regards to the
ongoing economic uncertainty, energy crisis and inflationary pressures and an
increasingly anti-development planning system and policy regime Inevitably,
these issues are having a considerable impact on both the ability, and willingness,
of customers to buy and the industry’s ability to deliver.
Builders can only build if customers can buy and
the regulatory system within which they operate allows them to. The social and
economic implications of a drop in housing supply are considerable. House
building supports 800,000 jobs, and generates £40bn of economic activity each
year; whilst reducing supply would further hit housing affordability for a
generation struggling to get on the housing ladder.
Many of these pressures are global in nature and
thus not in the gift of any one government to resolve. However, there are
several domestic challenges and issues that Government could work with the
industry to overcome.
We have identified seven key areas for attention
and proposed a range of associated recommendations for this Budget:
1. Tackling intergenerational unfairness: Making
the housing market work for all
- Helping first time
buyers on to the housing ladder
- Increasing the supply
of retirement housing
2. Creating a business environment that enables
growth
- Assessing the
cumulative economic burden of new taxes and levies
- Broadening the range
of actors contributing to resolving the building safety crisis
3. Getting ready for net zero
- Further engagement
with the Future Homes Hub to agree a deliverable route map
- Educating and
incentivising consumers to decarbonise
4. Supporting the efficient running of the planning
process
- Adequately resourcing
LPAs
- Reassessing proposed
anti-development reforms to the NPPF
5. Establishing solutions that deliver for housing
and the environment
- Resolving the
nutrient neutrality problem that is delaying over 100k homes
6. Protecting and creating growth opportunities for
SME builders
- Increasing the
availability of small sites in local plans
- Introduction of a
Government guarantee
7. Building the workforce ready for a greener
future
- Become a world leader
in greener housing technologies
- Review of the funding
for skills development
- A more modern, more
productive post-16 education
Article
published on HBF website 3rd February 2023
https://www.hbf.co.uk/news/hbfs-budget-representation-7-areas-of-challenge-to-overcome/