The Government wants 1m more homes to be built by 2020, housing minister Brandon Lewis has said.
Making it clear that this was an ambition rather than a commitment over the life of this Parliament, Lewis was speaking on last night’s BBC Inside Out programme.
Shaun Peart, managing director for LSL Land & New Homes, expressed scepticism.
He said: “While we welcome the Government’s desire to build 1m new homes in England by 2020, until the basic fundamentals are addressed this dream is highly unlikely to become a reality.
“More small and medium-sized enterprises need to be encouraged – perhaps through incentivisation – to build more houses.
“Although there’s been support through the National Planning Policy Framework, we need more planning reform to ensure what is built is appropriate and meets demand for affordable housing.
“And, of course, the Government also needs to face up to the woeful lack of skilled labour and in some cases materials to build the houses.
“Ultimately, without an urgent focus on these areas, it won’t just be the last three years that see a housing deficit but the years to come too.”
Other sceptics have pointed out that if Lewis’s stated ambition is to be fulfilled, it would mean that the million extra homes would in practice all have to receive planning permission within the next three years, and construction on most would have to start much earlier.
The National Housing Federation says 974,000 homes were needed between 2011 and 2014. However, fewer than half that number were built – 457,490.
Shelter boss Campbell Robb said: “We are past the time for another grand statement of ambition.
“We need to see investment and a comprehensive plan that can actually get these homes built.”
Other critics are expressing concern that seeking to rush through large numbers of homes will lead to thoughtless developments in places with little infrastructure and which are ill-suited to being concreted over.
The Inside Out programme, a heavily flagged-up investigation into the housing crisis, can be seen for 30 days on iPlayer.
At our conference in May it was suggested that the last time we built 200k homes in a year was in the late 1960’s so 5 consecutive years seems highly unlikely.
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This is not the “step change” deal it sounds.
Despite the depressed level of house building at 140,000 dwellings per annum, in 5 years we will build over 700,000 properties in any case.
We need to train more tradespeople, as most of those who are qualified are busy already.
So even if we wanted to tarmac the entire south of England. We do not have the skilled people to do it.
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