Budget reaction: Industry hails housing focus but doubts remain on supply and mortgage availability
The construction industry has given a cautious welcome to the housing stimulus package announced in today鈥檚 Budget.
Measures include the .
Richard Threlfall, KPMG鈥檚 head of infrastructure, building and construction, said: 鈥淭he Chancellor鈥檚 鈥楬elp to Buy鈥� scheme looks like the perfect 鈥済et out of jail鈥� card.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a bold move, perhaps a desperate one, but one that will be undeniably welcome by the beleaguered construction industry.鈥�
Mark Farmer, head of residential at EC Harris, said: 鈥淚t seems housing has won the battle against infrastructure funding, possibly due to the immediacy of its impact. The scale of the 鈥楬elp to Buy鈥� initiative is impressive.鈥�
But some industry experts questioned whether the announcements would address underlying problems in the housing sector, including under-supply and a lack of affordable mortgage availability.
The National Housing Federation delivered the strongest criticism, saying the 鈥渄anger鈥� was that the focus on housing demand rather than supply would 鈥渏ust create another housing bubble鈥�.
Chief executive David Orr said: 鈥溾�淭he Government should be focusing on unlocking investment to build more new homes as a way of managing down the housing benefit bill and boosting the economy. We welcome the measures to support new supply but they are very small scale.
鈥淎nd we still need the Government to help unlock land banks, free the small publicly owned derelict sites so we can build houses on them and give housing providers long-term certainty over how much income they can expect so they can start planning and building beyond 2015.鈥�
Full reaction to the 2013 Budget .
No comments yet