Landlords Wanted
Labour’s Shadow Housing Minister Emma Reynolds MP has given a speech to the NHBC on house building. In her speech, Ms Reynolds criticised the Coalition’s record on house building, stating that over the past 30 years the UK has been “consistently out-built by our international competitors”.
She also launched “Build First” – a package of measures that a future Labour Government would introduce to help smaller building firms and custom builders help to meet housing demand. This package includes measures that would require local authorities to include a higher proportion of small sites in their five year land supply, as well as guaranteed access to public land to smaller firms and custom builders.
Responding to Emma Reynolds speech, Housing Minister Kris Hopkins MP said:
“Labour’s debt-fuelled housing crash saw housebuilding fall to its lowest levels since the 1920s. This Government has picked up the pieces, keeping interest rates down by tackling Labour’s deficit. House building is now at its highest levels since 2007, and schemes like Help to Buy and the Right to Buy are giving hard-working people a helping hand up the housing ladder. Labour just offer the same old recipe of top-down targets which build nothing but resentment, more taxes and more debt”
Responding to Emma Reynolds speech, FMB Chief Executive Brian Berry said:
“Labour’s plans to boost house building by helping small builders enter the housing market is the right step forward. Over the past 25 years small house builders have been squeezed out of the market. In 1988 two-thirds of all new homes were built by SME builders, but that figure now stands at less than a third. This decline has accelerated over the past five years, as large numbers of firms have either gone out of business or have diversified out of building homes altogether.
“Any political party serious about tackling the housing crisis needs to get small house builders back into the market. Two barriers are preventing this from happening – lack of access to finance and lack of access to land. Until these two issues are addressed, small builders will not be able to build the number of new homes that are urgently needed to solve the housing crisis.
“Housing is rising up political agenda and will be a key issue during the General Election. Everyone has the right to a decent affordable home, which is why it is encouraging that the Labour Party is actively seeking ways to achieve this. An army of small builders suggested by Labour is exactly what is needed to boost housing supply and help provide more choice in an overpriced and constricted housing market.”