<h1>Healey and Shapps both commit to increasing house building</h1> HBF Chairman Stewart Baseley today told Housing Minister John Healey that it was vital support was maintained for housing development in the PBR and warned Shadow Minister Grant Shapps that Tory localism plans had to be controlled – if the recent signs of recovery in the market were to be maintained. Shapps and Healey both told the audience of assembled housebuilders that their respective party’s would increase house building if elected, but by very different routes, as major policy differences emerged and housing issues shaped up to become a major battleground in the run up to the next election. Healey reiterated the Government’s commitment to supporting the industry, whilst Shapps detailed how his party would fix the ‘broken’ planning system to facilitate more house building, and incentivise local communities to support development such that developers would be ‘paraded through the streets’ for delivering new homes. “Government support needed in PBR” Baseley urged Government not to withdraw the financial assistance given to support house building in recent months and to use the forthcoming Pre-Budget Report to ‘underpin’ the signs of recovery that have emerged in recent months. Baseley said, “If I have one big message for Government today, it is a plea not to withdraw incentives, as I fear to do so would potentially slow the market just as it is beginning to show signs of recovery. We need to see an extension of the stamp duty holiday and Homebuy Direct and Kickstart schemes as well as assistance for first time buyers.” Tory plans “high risk” and “localism needs to be controlled” He then warned that the Conservatives switch towards localism was a ‘high risk strategy’ at the end of the worst recession in living memory, and that central Government could not simply ‘abdicate responsibility for the country’s housing need any more than it can for schools and hospitals’. Baseley set out a set of ground rules and controls that must be put in place to make localism work and ensure much needed housing supply was maintained and the country’s innate NIMBYism overcome. “It is impossible to conceive that any Government would risk an undersupply of beds or classrooms. It has to know that for a population of some 60m there is a need for so many schools or hospitals. Housing to me is no different and is a basic human requirement.” FOR A FULL TRASNSCRIPT OF BASELEY’S SPEECH CLICK HERE - Ends – For media enquiries contact Steve Turner on 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. Baseley, Healey and Shapps were speaking at the HBF’s Housing Market Intelligence Conference which took place on October 13 at Savoy Place, London.
