Cost of raising HCA standards cannot be looked at in isolation The HCA’s Sustainability Standards Consultation raises a number of concerns for successful housing delivery by both the home building industry and other housing providers. Developers are continually looking to build to higher standards – be that in the private or the public sectors. But they must produce homes that are affordable and which meet the needs and aspirations of home owners and social housing providers. Increasingly house building sites are being made unviable by the policy and regulatory demands being placed on them by central and local Government and various public agencies - for example, for affordable housing, energy efficiency or community infrastructure. As the HCA recognises, increasing standards will inevitably have an additional cost implication, so that any such demands must be viewed in the context of overall housing delivery and the existing significant policy burdens on residential development. It will simply not be possible therefore to meet all of these demands and deliver the required numbers of new homes. There are real trade-offs between whatever standards are set and cost, affordability and the viability of future housing land supply. There are also clear implications for the outcomes that can be achieved from public investment in housing and for the private sector’s ability to meet its customers’ aspirations. HBF will give very careful thought to the issues raised in the HCA consultation and engage with both the Agency and other parties to discuss their implications and the best way forward. 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. For more details on the HCA’s consultation go to; http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/hca-consults-proposed-new-core-design-standards.htm
