The autumn 2017 budget had several important announcement for housing –with £15.3bn over the next 5 years added to the £44 bn announced in October. Additional funding will support affordable housing, Help to Buy, a Land Assembly Fund and planning delivery grants to focus on design quality.
The recognition in the budget that diversity in the housing market is necessary to achieve the ambition of 300,000 homes a year by mid 2020s is welcome
SMEs will be supported by loans from the Home Building Fund. There is growing recognition that the reliance on home builders to build all the homes needed has limitations; with the extension of grants from the Housing Infrastructure Fund, local authorities have a significant role to play in unlocking land opportunities.
Housing associations with land holdings can build more swiftly than housebuilders would as they can create their own local market. Housing associations can move from one business model to another, depending on the viability or tenure mix of a site, so are well placed to respond to calls to increase volume.
Design and build is not suitable for small contractors on small sites but these could be architect led to encourage development; larger contractors will generally work on sites of 20 plus units, which has resulted in a backlog of small sites with development potential.
Local authorities are in a good position to support the development of smaller sites; on their larger sites, they could develop much more quickly but do they have to set up a Local Housing Company (LHC) to do this?
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Contributors:
Adam Challis, Head of Residential Research
JLL
John Marr, Senior Policy Advisor
UK Finance
Tonia Secker, Partner, Housing & Regeneration
Trowers & Hamlins
Elaine Bailey, Chief Executive
The Hyde Group
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