Housing Supply Matters

James Pargeter, head of residential projects at Deloitte Real Estate, comments on the housing and infrastructure announcements in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement.

“The various housing announcements this week in the Government’s National Infrastructure Plan and Autumn Statement confirm that housing supply is now rightly regarded as infrastructure. Notable measures include:

• Extension of the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) to the end of the next parliament in 2020. As the figures match the current programme (average £17,400 grant-per-unit), it implies a continuation of the ‘affordable rent’ model, rather than the return to ‘social rent’ model that many have called for.
• A pilot scheme for direct commissioning by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) of 10,000 homes at Northstowe. As an element of the additional supply required this is an interesting move, and it will be interesting to see how the design, procurement and sales process is tackled. If deemed a success, this model will no doubt be used on more of the 150,000 homes due to be provided on release of public sector land by 2020.
• Housing associations are to be consulted on ways to increase their borrowing capacity for additional development.

“In conclusion, this Autumn Statement provides more for the UK housing sector than was probably envisaged in advance. There remain huge challenges ahead to meet the issues of demographic change and affordability across the whole spectrum of housing types that are needed to house the nation into the future. This cannot be limited to a single-parliament timescale, and I hope that broad agreement can be reached by politicians and the wider sector so that a genuinely long-term and collaborative housing strategy can emerge.”

Visit our dedicated Autumn Statement website. 

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Notes to editors

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