8 COMMENT
Brian Berry, chief executive of the Federation of Master Builders
CHALLENGING THE GOVERNMENT IN 2021
The FMB’s Brian Berry considers the state of the housebuilding industry as the new year begins in a time of national crisis, and what the Government needs to do to ensure its recovery.
And we know that sadly, we are not out of the wood yet. The Chancellor announced at the Spending Review that this year is set to be a very difficult one economically, and that we will not see signs of recovery until 2022. This economic analysis chimes with the
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THE NEXT STEPS WILL BE FOR THE FMB TO WORK WITH HOMES ENGLAND TO ENSURE THE FUND IS AS ACCESSIBLE AS POSSIBLE TO SMALL BUSINESSES
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findings of the FMB House Builders’ Survey 2020, which saw members predicting that buyer demand would only start growing from 2022. Of those surveyed, 16 per cent said that they would not recover pre-coronavirus activity levels until at least 2022. Government interventions to support the housing industry during the second lockdown, including the Stamp Duty Land Tax holiday,
hat a year 2020 was. I applaud the resilience of SME builders during one of the toughest years on record.
have proved successful, with anecdotal evidence from members suggesting that the market has been buoyant since September. Clarity of messaging, including the joint letter to the housing industry signed by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Federation of Master Builders and the Home Builders Federation, has also addressed business concerns about the impact of the ongoing economic uncertainty on construction. Notwithstanding this, access to materials and lower workforce productivity continue to hamper output. Ahead of the Spending Review, the FMB called on the Government to place local builders at the heart of their plans to “build, build, build” our way to recovery. SME housebuilders build high-quality, beautiful
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