A Housing Bill for Everyone: For Builders

“We are the builders” – the words of the Chancellor in his conference speech last year. The Housing Bill which we’ve been voting on this week delivers on this commitment. The Government intends to build 1 million new homes by 2020, including 200,000 starter homes.

The Home Builders’ Federation has welcomed the Government’s plans to deliver on its pledge to improve home ownership opportunities for young people. Over half of homes bought under Help to Buy were new-build properties, contributing to the sharpest increase in house building orders since 2010.

The National Housing Federation has said they agree with the Government’s strategy of boosting the supply of housing by streamlining the planning system. Before March 2012 the average number of homes planned for by local authorities was 573 a year. However, solid local plans have helped expand this to an average of 717 homes a year.

Similarly the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors has praised the measures to speed up delivery on brownfield sites. Putting brownfield sites on a statutory register will make builders and local authorities more aware of the sites available.

The scale of the challenge is massive. At the end of Labour’s time in office, house building was at its lowest level since the 1920’s. In 2008-9, only 88,000 new homes started. The number of homes available for social rent decreased by 420,000 and those on waiting lists went up from 1 million to 1.8 million.

The situation was clearly not sustainable. Most families aspire to the security and safety of homeownership and we need to build more in order to do this.

In the previous parliament, the Conservative-led Coalition Government made significant process on housebuilding. Nearly 800,000 homes were built, including over 260,000 affordable homes. Figures from the Office of National Statistics show that output in the construction industry increased by 2.7 per cent in June when compared to June 2014 and between April and June work on new private homes rose by nearly 3.9 per cent on the previous quarter.

As MP I will continue to back building new homes, from starter homes to family homes, as part of sustainable and sensitive development.