HBF also calls for certainty over future of Help To Buy as it reveals economic worth of sector
The House 黑洞社区 Federation has warned that despite improvements to the planning system more needs to be done to speed up the start-to-end planning process, enabling builders to get on site more quickly.
And as the HBF revealed research showing a 74% increase in housebuilding activity in the past four years, it called on the government to provide certainty on the future of the Help to Buy scheme past 2021 鈥� the date when prime minister Theresa May extended the initiative, introduced in April 2013, to last October.
鈥淭he scheme is underpinning demand for new homes at a time that the overall housing market has slowed,鈥� said Stewart Baseley, the HBF鈥檚 executive chairman. 鈥淚t has helped more than 160,000 households to buy a new build home, four in five of whom are first-time buyers.鈥�
Applauding the growth in house building since 2014, Baseley said 鈥渦nprecedented increases in housing supply in recent years have delivered significant benefits for UK PLC and the industry is investing in more land and people to enable it to go further and build more.
鈥淭he industry is calling on government to work with it to create the policies that will allow it to deliver the government鈥檚 ambition of 300,000 homes a year in England.鈥�
The research by Lichfield for the HBF suggested house building now contributed 拢38bn a year to the domestic economy, supporting nearly 700,000 jobs, including 289,000 directly, as well as generating 拢2.7bn in tax revenues and spending nearly 拢12bn with the supply chain.
The HBF said if the government鈥檚 target of building 300,000 homes a year was reached, house building activity would be worth a further 拢14.2bn and lead to the creation of 260,000 more jobs.
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