Policy

Cross party of MPs demand greater support for SME housebuilders

News, Policy /

A cross-party group of MPs has urged the government to introduce a new ‘Dedicated Strategy for Small Housebuilders’ to reverse the decline in the number of new homes built by SME housebuilders, which has plummeted to just 2,500 today from 12,000 in 1998. Describing the new proposals, MPs on the APPG for Small and Micro Business, leading the report, said, “We have many legitimate disagreements with each other on many aspects of housing policy, but on this we are agreed: we cannot solve the housing shortage without smaller builders.” ‘An Inquiry into Support for Small Housebuilders’, supported by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), calls for a ‘Dedicated Strategy for Small Housebuilders’ which must address the key challenges holding housebuilders back, including: […]

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Sajid Javid plans intervention on councils failing to plan new homes

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Housing Secretary Sajid Javid has written to 15 local authorities in England to inform them of decisions on intervention following their continued failure to produce a local plan, which are key to setting out how and where they expect to meet residents’ needs for new homes, for more than a decade. In November 2017, the government confirmed it would commence the consideration of intervention in 15 local authorities where there has been a failure to produce a local plan. The councils had until 31 January 2018 to explain why they hadn’t yet published a plan, providing any exceptional circumstances for why the government shouldn’t intervene. Following their submission, the government is now setting out next steps. Of the 15 local authorities: in Castle Point,

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Housing completions rise, but fall short of targets

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New figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show an encouraging 16 per cent year-on-year rise in housing completions in 2017, but the numbers fall well short of the government’s target of 300,000 by the mid-2020s. There were 163,250 new build completions in 2017, and 162,180 new build starts, a year-on-year increase of five per cent. However, the figure for new starts fell in the final quarter of 2017 by 1% versus the same period in the preceding year. The statistics reveal relatively high rates of new build starts west of the London commuter belt and across the Midlands to East Anglia. Local authority areas with particularly high new start rates include Northamptonshire, Essex and South Derbyshire while Croydon, Northamptonshire and

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