I am delighted to welcome you all to our annual lunch – it’s good to see some old friends and also some new faces, and in particular I would like to extend a warm welcome to the Housing Minister Caroline Flint for finding the time to join us in what I know is a very busy diary. Caroline, I note that you are a former public health Minister - so I hope it wasn’t the menu failing to meet dietary guidelines which has forced you to leave before we eat - or the thought that what I am about to say might have given you indigestion. Either way, we really appreciate you finding time to be with us today. It’s been quite a year. Just think about some of the issues we have been dealing with over the past twelve months. We have: Sought to get to grips with the zero carbon agenda – including co chairing the Taskforce and helping Paul King who is here today with the task of setting up a Delivery Body Engaged with the OFT on their market study of the industry ensuring they have accurate data about our industry The Govt has produced a Housing Green Paper which revealed amongst other things a new target of 3 million new homes by 2020 The Govt also proceeded with plans for a new Planning Bill, Working with others, most notably Sir Stuart Lipton who is here today, we persuaded the Government not to proceed with its plans for a Planning Gain Supplement and we are now Engaged with the same partners and CLG on developing proposals for the Community Infrastructure Levy In addition we have seen the publication of the PPS on Climate Change and the roll out of the new PPS3 land availability and housing market assessments And most recently the announcement about Lifetime Homes And I could go on, and in an ideal world would talk about each of these issues in more detail. But now that Castro has stepped down, even Cubans don’t have to suffer seven hour speeches any longer, and I am very conscious that you are all anxious to hear what the Minister has to say and enjoy your lunch. But it would be inconceivable for us to meet here today without me saying something about the two major challenges we face; namely the double whammy on the industry of the current economic situation and the added burden of the cumulative cost of regulation. Turning to the Economy first, it is almost a full time task merely trying to keep up with events. When we met here twelve months ago I certainly never imagined we would find ourselves in such difficult economic times today – I’m not sure too many others did either, and indeed the speed with which the economic crisis has unfolded has been quite extraordinary. Clearly it has serious implications for the short term housing market and for the Government’s ambitious housing growth aspirations. Publicly we at HBF do not generally comment on the housing market - our primary role being to represent industry views and seek to influence Government policy on planning, building regulations and such matters . We have however, ensured since the drama at Northern Rock began last Autumn, that Ministers and officials across Government and at the Bank of England, including members of the MPC have been fully aware of what house builders have been experiencing at the coalface, and in particular the difficulties the credit crisis has created for customers unable to obtain finance to purchase a home. We therefore welcomed the announcement by the Bank of England on Monday of the £50Bn package for lenders. Hopefully this will help restore confidence amongst the lending community, but clearly from our perspective we need to see this money being made available to our customers – and particularly first time buyers - and also see the benefit of interest rate cuts being passed on if it is to have the effect of also helping to restore consumer confidence. As ever we as an industry are playing our part - reacting positively by finding new ways to assist customers with ever more innovative packages to assist them to buy their homes – particularly first time buyers and those with little equity who have been so badly affected by the current situation. As you know we have sought to position HBF over the past couple of years as an organisation representing an industry that wants to help find solutions, not just identify the problems. We believe that as welcome as the £50Bn package is, more needs to be done. That’s why we are currently engaged in discussions about a number of ideas we have in areas including Stamp Duty reform; ensuring that English Partnerships First Time Buyer initiative is allowed to continue at this difficult time; and enabling the Housing Corporation to purchase more homes from the private sector We look forward to continuing those discussions on the immediate issues of the day, but we mustn’t lose sight of the longer term objectives as well. The second element of my double whammy is the growing concern we have about the cumulative cost of regulation, and the problems it is causing, which threaten the deliverability of the Governments housing growth ambitions - targets which may seem even more ambitious to us all today, but which will come into sharp focus again once the economy changes for the better - as it surely will – and inevitably demand increases. It’s now such a serious cause of concern that we had to raise it directly with the Prime Minister, and we really do need some action to cut the cost of the regulatory burdens being placed on our industry. The simple maths is that the combined costs of affordable housing, CIL, zero-carbon, Lifetime Homes and all the other items on the shopping list comes, on a conservative basis, to around £3 million per hectare. That’s more than the average value of residential building land outside London last year, and will lead to a reduction in the amount of land coming through the planning system at a time when more land will be required if we are to stand any chance of increasing housing output over the medium term. Clearly this issue is even more relevant in today’s somewhat difficult environment, but be clear it will not go away once the market returns to more normal times. Let me finish on a couple of positive points. The drive to provide zero carbon homes and the demands of our customers underlines the need to improve skills. I am delighted that we can announce that our industry is now closer than ever to our goal of a fully carded workforce. The latest audit of members of the Major Home Builders Group in February 2008 found that an impressive 85% of their workforce now carry CSCS cards. There’s more to do but we can be immensely proud of this effort, given the speed with which it has been achieved. We can also take pride in the latest results of our own survey, released today, which show continuing high levels of customer satisfaction - a copy of our results will be available for you as you leave Finally it is perhaps appropriate that we gather today in the Churchill Room on St George’s Day for this lunch. Because I sense we are going to need plenty of determination, courage and resolve over the coming months. But then, in my experience they are qualities our industry processes in abundance. Thank you for listening so patiently – it now gives me great pleasure to invite the Housing Minister Caroline Flint to say a few words
