House Building Increase

As of 15th November 2016, the number of new homes has risen 11% in a year (189,650 net additions), which is the highest annual total in 8 years. This increase is the third consecutive year on year increase.

The breakdown in the additional homes is as follows:-

• 163,940 New Build Homes
• 30,600 were change of use (non-domestic to residential)
• 4,760 from conversions between houses and flats
• 780 Miscellaneous gains

The government has announced a £3 billion Home Building Fund[i] which has the target to help build more than 25,000 new homes this Parliament and up to 225,000 in the longer term.  In addition to the Home Building Fund, an additional £2 billion is also in the pipeline to speed up delivery of homes on public sector land.

The Homes building Fund has the backing of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) with its CEO, Mark Hodgkinson, voicing his support, “We’re determined to speed up delivery and promote new approaches to housebuilding. The new Home Building Fund offers the industry flexible development and infrastructure finance and we’re open for business right away. From today, builders and investors just need to give us a call to start discussing funding for new homes. Our dedicated team will also provide expert ongoing support to new entrants to the sector and those companies proposing innovative solutions to speed up house building.”

Going through Parliament at the moment is the Neighbourhood Planning Bill, which will:-

• give more power to local people with regard to neighbourhood planning;
• loosen the requirements as to use and discharge of planning conditions, especially at pre-commencement stage;
• further move the compulsory purchase process forward to make it clearer and faster for all involved;
• implement more stringent monitoring of the impact of permitted development rights on the supply of housing.

[i]https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sajid-javid-and-philip-hammond-lets-get-britain-building