20 COMMENT


housing sector; I can only hope this trend will stop until the next election, at least. What the industry needs is stability, especially as the economy turns sour, and consumers become much more careful with their fi nances. eve seen the repair maintenance and improvement market start to decline in output, and that is often the early warning sign for a wider sectoral problem.


WHAT WILL A NEW GOVERNMENT NEED TO BRING TO THE TABLE?


As with all business sectors, small, local housebuilders will not benefi t from the malaise which grips Whitehall. Ambitious, hard-hitting policy and its delivery will turn the SME housing sector around, but also deliver net zero ambitions and levelling up.


the baton, or will it all just peter out?


WHERE DO SME HOUSEBUILDERS STAND WITH THE ‘GATEKEEPER GOVERNMENT’? I had pinned hope on a resurgent DLUHC under Michael Gove, with ambitious plans for levelling up and tying this together with housebuilding. But, ultimately I still had doubts over his Department’s output, such as the Levelling up and Regeneration Bill.


The Bill has merit, but doesn’t seem to do enough to boost the ever-declining


housing delivery of small builders. owever I will reserve fi nal udgement for when it’s fully implemented. Now, we look towards a new government and potentially new plans, but ultimately what our industry needs is stability and a long-term vision.


In September we will very likely see our thirteenth Housing Minister since 2010 (and the twenty-second since 1997), that’s if newly appointed Marcus Jones doesn’t stay in place. There has never been much certainty for the


As I’ve said in these articles time and time again, if there is a genuine want to boost local economies and unlock new opportunities, look no further than your local housebuilder. They enable people in local communities to train locally, work locally and ultimately stay local, which uplifts every part of the nation in equal measure, which is the ultimate deliverable of levelling up. Come September, the new Government has an opportunity to make it a reality and the industry as well as the public will ultimately judge them on what they deliver.


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