BSRIA responds to government's intention of financial borrowing to boost housebuilding

In October 2017, BSRIA responded to the government plan to borrow money to fund the building of hundreds of thousands of new homes. Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said taking advantage of record-low interest rates "can be the right thing if done sensibly".

The government has admitted house-building in the UK is failing to keep up with demand and has described the current market as "broken". Javid said between 275,000 and 300,000 homes a year – a level of house-building not seen since the 1960s – were needed in England alone to help tackle the shortage in affordable housing. He went on to say that the government is “looking at new investments and there will be announcements” saying these would come in November 2017's Budget.

Other recent announcements by the government include a pledge by Theresa May at the Conservative Party conference 2017 to provide an extra £2bn to build an additional 25,000 social homes.

Tassos Kougionis, Principal Consultant – Residential, at BSRIA’s Sustainable Construction Group, said:

“Delivering more new homes has been one of the biggest residential challenges the UK has faced in recent years. Government has already committed to increasing the housing volume delivered per year targeting to deliver almost 250,000 homes annually.

"Ergo, BSRIA supports this announcement if it kick-starts much-needed house-building. In February this year government released its housing white paper Fixing our Broken Housing Market. The paper introduced a plan to deliver more new homes per year in order to meet the ever-increasing housing demand around the country. Wherever the financial incentives are drawn, it is clear to me that both public and private stakeholders will have to work closer together in order to deliver the targets required.

"Of course, it is also very important that the new homes we construct are of high quality and offer occupants the right environment to live and thrive.

"BSRIA’s Residential Network events discuss the challenges and opportunities in moving the housing agenda forward.”

This article was originally published here by BSRIA in October 2017.

--BSRIA