The Home Builders Federation’s Policy and External Affairs Manager, Laura Markus reflects on the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement and the measures Government could (and should) have taken to stimulate housing supply.

It has been just over a year since Jeremy Hunt took up the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer, and last week’s Autumn Statement was the fourth fiscal event to take place with him in this role.

However, while Hunt inherited a housing market that was becoming increasingly difficult for both builders and buyers to navigate, thanks in part to the impacts of the ill-fated mini budget in September 2022, there has been little in any of these fiscal statements to address this, and this year’s Autumn Statement was no different.

Interest in housing from parliamentarians on both sides of the house, from the media and from voters, has increased significantly in the last year. As such, the decision to continuously overlook issues related to housing seems an odd approach for the Government to take, and perhaps a greatly missed opportunity to win over voters with a general election fast approaching.

The Chancellor’s announcements for the home building industry were limited to an extension of the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme (MGS), some extra funding for planning departments, and £110 million in funding for nutrient mitigation. While these steps are welcome, the support they will provide is extremely limited and will provide little relief to both the industry and consumers:

• During its first two years, the MGS only supported around half the number of transactions that the Help to Buy scheme did. As a result, thousands of potential purchasers, particularly first-time buyers, are unable to get their foot on the property ladder each year.
• £5 million in extra funding for planning departments is a drop in the ocean of what is actually needed to properly address the planning backlog. The RTPI estimates that £500 million is needed over four years.
• The Government estimates that the £110 million in funding for nutrient mitigation will unblock 40,000 homes over the next five years. With 150,000 homes held up due to nutrient neutrality requirements, this will not unblock the vast majority of development leaving many regional businesses under threat. In addition, HBF estimates that an additional 41,000 homes a year are not being brought forward as a result of the rules, so the number of blocked homes will simply continue to grow over this five-year period.

Meanwhile, there are a number of changes that ministers could have brought forward as part of this statement, without the need for major legislative change that would have gone some way towards addressing the root causes of issue impacting housing supply.

In our 10-point action plan, published last week, we outlined a number of interventions government could and should take now:

1. Ensure the Government’s plans to increase planning fees mean increased resources for planning departments, who have seen real terms funding cut by over half since 2010.
2. Ensure that local authorities have local plans in place which will meet local housing need.
3. Work with industry to revise rules around nutrient neutrality and end the disproportionate impact on developers, which is currently preventing 145,000 houses from being built.
4. Make the Construction Industry Training Board fit for purpose by reforming the CITB levy to include key occupations for the industry, such as plumbing engineers.
5. Ensure post-16 education and training is focused on employer’s needs
6. Introduce a presumption in favour of development on small sites of up to 25 homes on brownfield land, as part of the planned changes to the National Planning Policy
7. Reform the Standard Method to ensure that new housing is delivered in a proportionate way across the whole country.
8. Ensuring local planning decision makers have a strong statutory duty to give special attention to the needs of older people in local plans and housing needs assessments.
9. Abolish stamp duty for all purchases of homes with an EPC rating of B or above.
10. Facilitate a roundtable with government, industry and lenders to explore the possible expansion of green/energy efficient mortgages.

With home building and ownership regularly dominating PMQs, parliamentarian’s speeches, and the media, it has become one of the main dividing lines between the main parties.

At an electorate level, our research finds that 78% of the public agree the country is facing a housing crisis, with 72% believing that responsibility for solving it sits most heavily with Government.

In the years since the last general election, housing demand has soared, while availability and affordability has decreased rapidly. It’s no surprise, therefore, that housing has solidified itself in the top five priorities for voters.

With such strong opinions among the electorate, any party looking to form the next Government cannot afford to ignore or make half-baked commitments to the industry.

Although the Labour Party has stepped up in this regard, dedicating much time to housing related announcements, the Conservatives have continued to fall short. This may have staved off a backbench rebellion for the time being, but, as the local elections earlier this year proved, will not pay off at the ballot box.

The next election could be at any point over the next 12 months, and so the Government could be forgiven for not announcing a mass overhaul of our planning system at this point, but as we have shown, there are many ‘quick wins’ that could be achieved that would remedy many of the day-to-day issues home builders face and allow the industry, consumers and communities to flourish.

Read our 10-point Action Plan, Firmer Foundations, and the international housing audit that informed our recommendations, Housing Horizons, on the HBF website