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Builders call for White Paper implementation
Ministers must remove barriers to small house builders if rates of new home delivery are to increase, the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) has said.
The federation, which represents the UK construction industry, called for measures announced in February’s Housing White Paper to be put into practice.
It was responding to a Local Government Association (LGA) report released today which claims the average new home will have to last 2,000 years if current rates of housebuilding continue.
Brian Berry, chief executive of the FMB, said: “The White Paper quite rightly emphasises the need to diversify the housebuilding sector so it is less reliant on a small number of large housebuilding companies to build our homes.
“The concern is that almost six months after the White Paper was published, we’ve seen limited movement on a range of policies that if implemented, could start making a difference today.”
He said the LGA was right to highlight the slow rate of housing delivery, but defended the construction industry against statistics in the report which said one in 10 buyers of new homes are dissatisfied with the quality of their purchase.
“To put this another way, that means 90% of consumers are satisfied with the quality of their new home, which is a high customer satisfaction rate. Furthermore, this satisfaction rate is likely to be higher still among customers of SME house builders like the ones represented by the FMB,” he said.
And he argued that existing housing stock could be improved if VAT on housing improvement works was reduced from 20% to 5% to encourage investment.
