Mon 12 May 2008
Housing targets set to fall to catastrophic levels
Statistics released today by the NHBC (the National House-Building Council) show that the number of applications lodged by housebuilders for new homes in the UK have decreased by a third since the same period last year, which marks the start of a catastrophic fall in house building levels, according to the House Builders Association (HBA).Almost 38,000 applications were lodged between January and March, down from almost 53,717 in 2007, the NHBC’s figures show. Areas particularly hit by the building downturn are the north-east, which reports a decrease of 60% in building, while Northern Ireland and Wales reported decreases of 65% and 47% respectively.
Housing association targets are also down 11%, from 9,784 to 8,702 since last year.
But until the Bank of England takes urgent action to get the mortgage markets moving again, housebuilding will continue to fall to catastrophically low levels of output, says Roger Humber (pictured), strategic policy adviser to the HBA. “The government’s aspirational housing targets are clearly in tatters. Until the Bank of England starts operating outside of its remit soon, which is to purely focus on inflation, to give the market more liquidity, no one will know what the current market demand is for housing.
“The market has fallen, and fallen very quickly since the industry witnessed a huge downturn in house sales in March and April. Interest rate reductions will no longer cut it in this market – the central bank needs to rethink its remit to tackle the economy on a macro level, instead of arming itself to fight the war against inflation, without equipping itself first to do battle with liquidity.”
Posted by Marc Da-Silva
in Bank of England, House Builders Association, National House Building Council (NHBC), News, Roger Humber on Mon 12 May 2008
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