Healey; “Naive” Tory plans will “blow a hole in George Osborne’s promise to freeze council tax” Shapps pledges to scrap Stamp Duty for first time buyers Housing Minister John Healey and his Tory Shadow Grant Shapps clashed today at HBF’s ‘Housing Question Time’ over housing delivery and public spending. Both agreed it was vital a way was found to increase housing delivery, but by very different routes. The debate marked the launch of the HBF’s election manifesto that warned MPs to wake up to a housing shortage that is fast approaching one million homes, at a time when less are being built than at any point since the Second World War. Healey said that Tory proposals threatened any recovery, and would ‘blow a hole in George Osborne’s promise to freeze council tax”. Shapps retorted that the country’s housing crisis was a direct result of current policy and that “there was more going wrong than just the recession”. The Conservatives are proposing to scrap the current Government’s target led planning system and introduce a ‘localism‘based approach that will see districts incentivised for building homes. It will involve some diversion of public funds from County Councils to Local Authorities who build more. “We are building less homes than anyone can remember and it is ludicrous we are hanging on to a system that fails to deliver” said Shapps. “Our proposals will make residents’ lives better as they will benefit from development. It is a simple and fair equation for Local Authorities - if you build more you will be better off.” But Healey hit back pointing out that County Councils were responsible for education and health spending adding that the proposals were “naive” and “a recipe for chaos that would blow out of the water the promise of a council tax freeze.” Healey defended the Government’s record saying that the steps taken to support the industry were unprecedented. He widened the debate to the wider economy saying ‘stopping public investment too soon will damage any recovery’. He said that the fact that £900 million had been diverted to housing from other areas such as health and transport clearly demonstrated the Government’s commitment to build more homes. But Shapps criticised the measures the Government has introduced as being ineffective, saying last year’s partial Stamp Duty holiday was a ‘gimmick’. He said the Conservatives would scrap Stamp Duty completely for first time buyers up to £250,000. The HBF manifesto launched today identified that housing issues are now affecting every UK constituency with increasing social and economic impacts: Nearly 5m people on housing waiting lists and 1.6m children living in overcrowded, temporary or run down housing* Young people unable to buy a home and delaying starting a family Hundreds of thousands have been made redundant by the slow down Homes built today will have to last over 1100 years because we are not building enough to replace it sooner The manifesto outlines the steps that urgently need taking to increase supply; Make more land available for development Address the chronic lack of mortgage availability Reduce the crippling costs of central/local Government regulation that prevent many sites being built Maintain public funding to support housing delivery and the jobs it creates Speaking today HBF Executive Chairman Stewart Baseley said; “We have a desperate and growing housing crisis that just has to be addressed. But despite the shortfall of homes fast approaching a million, we are building less than at any time since the Second World War. The social and economic implications dictate that the new Parliament’s MPs must address the barriers to delivery as a matter of urgency and it is positive that both parties are committed to increasing provision.” Increasing housing delivery will benefit every area of the country and;Create hundreds of thousands of jobs Provide enough homes for our population Remove millions from poor quality living conditions Stimulate the economy. £1 spent generates nearly £3 in economic activity ---Ends--- For media enquiries, or to arrange an interview, please contact Steve Turner on 020 7960 1606 / 07919 307 760 or steve.turner@hbf.co.uk Notes to Editors: 1. The Home Builders Federation (HBF) is the principal representative body for private sector home builders and voice of the home building industry in England and Wales. The HBF’s 300 member firms account for some 80% of all new homes built in England and Wales in any one year, and include companies of all sizes, ranging from multi-national, household names through regionally based businesses to small local companies: www.hbf.co.uk 2. The HBFs ‘Question Time’ style conference will take place in Westminster from 0930 on Wednesday March 10. The first ‘Political’ debate will feature John Healey, Grant Shapps and Professor Christine Whitehead from LSE. The following ‘Economic’ debate will feature Michael Saunders (Citigroup), Ed Stansfield (Capital Economics) and John Stewart (HBF). Both will take a ‘Question Time’ format with questions from the floor and will be chaired by HBF Executive Chairman Stewart Baseley. There are limited journalist places available. For further info contact Steve Turner as above. 3. Click here to view the HBF’s Manifesto 2010 4. Click here to view HBF’s detailed Manifesto in full 5. In her review of housing in 2004, Kate Barker stated there was shortfall of some 450,000 homes. Assuming a need for 250,000 homes a year since, undersupply has been in the region of 40-5000 homes per year until 2007 and significantly more since then with an estimated shortfall of over 100,000 for 2010 6. *Statistics on Local Authority waiting lists/ children from Shelter 7. GDP statistic from ‘Construction in the UK economy’ a report by LEK Consulting for the UK Contractors Group
