26 COMMENT
HOUSEBUILDING IS STILL A STRUGGLE
Brian Berry
Brian Berry, CEO of the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), discusses the latest data from the FMB’s State of Trade Survey and fi nds few reasons to cheer
THE UK GOVERNMENT MUST RECOMMIT TO BUILDING 300,000 HOMES EVERY YEAR
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s you will be aware, for too long we have not been building enough homes to address the growing housing crisis, resulting in overcrowding and young people not being able to afford to get on the housing ladder. The proportion of 25-34 years olds who owned a home in 1989 was but that percentage fi gure has now fallen to just 28%. What is very concerning is that the Government lacks a clear plan to solve the housing crisis, with the result being that the housing market continues to soften, house prices increase, and more and more people are stuck in rented accommodation.
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While there are plenty of complex issues holding back housebuilding, fundamentally we just need the Government to get to grips with delivery and allow more local housebuilders to deliver high quality homes fi t for their communities. The Government must recommit
to building 300,000 every year and give hope to both consumers and house builders alike that it is serious about increasing the supply of new homes.
STATE OF THE MARKET
In May we launched our latest FMB State of Trade Survey, which is a quarterly tracker of the SME construction market. In terms of our housing data, it unfortunately matched up with what we’d seen with other market trackers, such as the ffi ce of ational Statistics S, in that it showed that the housing market is struggling. While those reporting an increase in workload had increased in the previous quarter, it’s still not a positive picture, with enquiries only moderately improved, but still very poor. We have also for the fi rst time started to track how many starts per quarter are being made in this survey and this will continue,
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