Economists warn £500m will not go far
The £500 million package announced in the Budget to help kick start new housing schemes and build council homes could benefit as few as 10 sites nationally, according to Pricewaterhouse Coopers.
Richard Parker, partner and head of housing with PwC, said the funding boost could help remove some of the risks to housing development by funding infrastructure and planning gain requirements that developments can no longer support.
It could also increase the number of affordable housing units in schemes, he said.
‘These measures, if properly directed, could provide a much needed kick start but the scale of the problem is huge,’ he added.
‘The £500 million might help as few as 10 to 20 schemes nationally, depending on allocation criteria.’
He said the £100 million set aside for local authorities to build energy efficient homes might help to bring land into development relatively quickly although ‘the sums are small’.
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