The Budget: all housebuilders need to know

We’ve teased out the key points and shock decisions which were announced in between the jeers, coughing and exceptionally bad jokes.

“There is no single magic bullet,” Hammond warned. “If we don’t increase the supply of land more money will simply inflate prices. It will require money, planning reform and intervention.”

More specifically, here is exactly what Hammond has pledged to ease the housing crisis and win the millennial vote.

• The headline statement was the abolition of stamp duty for first time buyers on properties worth up to £300,000. In London, the first £300,000 of the cost of a £500,000 purchase will be exempt from stamp duty. Overall, this means that from today 80% of first-time buyers will not pay stamp duty.
• The government promised to deliver 300,000 new homes a year by mid-2020s – the highest amount since the 1970s.
• The government unveiled a £44 billion support package for housebuilding.
• More money is being pumped into the homebuilders fund.
• £630 million has been earmarked for a ‘small sites fund’.
• £8 billion of financial guarantees has been promised to private housebuilders.
• £2.7 billion has been set aside for the housing infrastructure fund.
• £1.1 billion is to be thrown at urban regeneration.
• A comparatively small £34 million will be spent on skills and training.
• HRA caps will be lifted in high-demand areas.
• Hammond called for high density homes around city centres and transport hubs, and pledged to protect the Green Belt.
• Oliver Letwin will chair a review which will investigate the mismatch between planning permissions granted and housing starts. Hammond declared that if vitally-needed land is being held for commercial rather than technical reasons, the government will intervene.
• Five new garden towns will be delivered via private-public partnerships.
• One million new homes will be built on the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford corridor by 2050.