Government plans thousands more homes to be built by small firms

A £3bn fund is to be created to help small firms build more houses, since 60% of new homes are currently built by just 10 big building firms.

The Government’s aim is to help small firms build more than 25,000 new homes by 2020 – and up to 225,000 in the long-term – by providing them with loans.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid is publishing a housing White Paper which is aimed at helping first-time buyers get on the housing ladder and help renters.

The Government says the White Paper has three aims:

:: Getting the right homes built in the right places

:: Speeding up house building

:: Diversifying the market

“Walk down your local high street today and there’s one sight you’re almost certain to see,” says Mr Javid. “Young people, faces pressed against the estate agent’s window, trying and failing to find a home they can afford.

“With prices continuing to sky rocket, if we don’t act now, a whole generation could be left behind. We need to do better, and that means tackling the failures at every point in the system.

“The housing market in this country is broken and the solution means building many more houses in the places that people want to live.

“Today we are setting out ambitious proposals to help fix the housing market so that more ordinary working people from across the country can have the security of a decent place to live.

“The only way to halt the decline in affordability and help more people onto the housing ladder is to build more homes. Let’s get Britain building.”

 

To help first-time buyers, the White Paper will include plans for a new Lifetime ISA to help first-time buyers save for a deposit, and extends Right to Buy discounts to housing association tenants.

The Lifetime ISA, to be launched in April, will be aimed at supporting younger adults to save flexibly for the long-term by giving them a 25% bonus on up to £4,000 of savings a year.

The Government will also consult on measures “to tackle all unfair and unreasonable abuses of leasehold” and move to reduce the number of properties left standing empty.

On the controversial issue of building in the green belt, the White Paper says that “only in exceptional circumstances” can local authorities alter green belt boundaries.

To help those renting a home rather than buying, ministers also say they want more security for renters with longer-term tenancies in the private sector.

The Government says an extra £1.4bn announced in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement will boost the Affordable Homes Programme and initiatives like the Rent to Buy scheme.

The White Paper will also give councils revised powers to speed up the building of new homes, and to place developments where they are most needed.

But it has already been attacked by Labour’s shadow housing minister John Healey, who said: “The measures announced so far in Theresa May’s long-promised housing White Paper are feeble beyond belief.

“After seven years of failure and 1,000 housing announcements, the housing crisis is getting worse not better.”

source: news.sky.com