industry news 11 HOMEOWNERS ALLIANCE
Government needs to be more creative with industry to alleviate lack of affordability
by Roseanne Field I
n order to address the continued housing supply crisis in the UK and counter soaring house prices, the Government needs to
show more creative thinking in tackling the housebuilding industry, according to a leading consumer representative. Paula Higgins, CEO of the HomeOwners
Alliance (HOA) said that while addressing issues such as planning in order to increase housing sup- ply is important, “The UK is in the hands of some big housebuilders, so we need to think more creatively.” She told HBD that the current rate of house-
building was not adequate to meet demand, and is leading to higher prices. “There is an incredible lack of supply. We say we should be building 250,000 a year and last year it was 155,000 – the main reason houses are unaffordable is we need to build more.” In order to meet the demand, the Government
needs to stop reannouncing projects and focus on getting more good quality homes built that suit the needs of all buyers, Higgins said. “The Government is constantly announcing and rean- nouncing new towns such as Ebbsfleet, but
HOUSING SUPPLY INQUIRY
Taskforce inquiry launched to identify new sources of housing supply
A
n inquiry has been launched to identify ways that national and local govern- ment, and the housebuilding industry
could implement to encourage more entrants into the housing market and support existing small-scale players. The National Housing Taskforce is fronting
the inquiry that will cover new sources of hous- ing supply, including small, self, custom and community-led builders. The National Housing Taskforce is a coalition
created by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Housing and Planning and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) to develop “clear, workable” proposals for both industry and Gov- ernment to address the United Kingdom’s housing shortage. The inquiry, led by the National Community Land Trust Network, is one of 12 work streams being undertaken by the taskforce. The inquiry’s chair, Helen Hayes MP
respond online at
www.hbdonline.co.uk
explained: “We face huge challenges with fami- lies across the country worrying whether their children will be able to attend the same school next year, or whether to get involved in their local community, due to the lack of suitable housing. They can’t just depend on the big volume house- builders, and many might want to build or
commission their own homes, individually or in groups. The chair of the inquiry added: “If Berliners
can build one in six homes this way, then Lon- doners and Mancunians can too. We want to know how the government and sector could make that happen.”
they’ve been talking about building these for 10 or 15 years so something needs to be done. She believes that while recent Government
schemes such as the Help to Buy ISA are worthy, they aren’t helping enough people. She advocated further reforms to stamp duty: “We could intro- duce no stamp duty for all first-time buyers, or have them pay stamp duty when they sell as opposed to buy.” Higgins also called on the Government do
more to help smaller housebuilders fund develop- ments, and help the UK “break free from the big housebuilders”. She believed that a combination of freeing up local authorities to borrow money for housebuilding and giving small developers more cash boosts would help to increase the number of houses built. Higgins said the Government “could be more
innovative by packaging up public land, sorting planning permission and sending it on to smaller developers.” She commented that this would improve the quality of new houses and offer a vari- ety of properties to suit all buyers. “There’s a real problem with quality,” Higgins said. “The Government is pushing to build more and stoking demand with initiatives like Help to Buy, but they’ve got to be the right types of houses for the
right types of people. They are focused on first- time buyers but they’re not thinking about the last-time buyers as well.” She concluded that better quality of housing
would help counter widespread local objections to development: “Improving the quality of new developments and making sure they create communities will help existing communities accept new housing.”
Paula Higgins
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