How can the UK build more homes post-Brexit?
Housing sector leaders are urging government to divert billions earmarked for home ownership schemes into social and affordable rented housing to counter an expected post-Brexit downturn.
Private housebuilding in England has been falling amid the uncertainty of the referendum campaign and there are already industry reports of a reduction in new commercial activity since the vote.
“Uncertain times call for pragmatism and flexibility,” the chief executive of the National Housing Federation (NHF), David Orr, said on Monday.
“Today, the sector puts forward a plan of action for the prime minister to keep the nation building and tackle the housing crisis. It is a plan that comes at no extra cost to the taxpayer and one that will improve the life chances of hundreds of thousands of working people in this country.”
Housing associations are arguing that they be allowed to use some of the £7bn set aside for government discounted starter homes and shared ownership schemes to build affordable homes to rent or buy.
This, they argue, will keep Britain building during the construction downturn.
The call comes just days after a report from the House of Lords Economics Affairs Committee also recommended local authorities and housing associations be “freed to build substantial numbers of homes for rent and for sale” to tackle the housing crisis.
The consultancy Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) suggests a construction slowdown may be on the horizon. In analysis for the NHF, it warns that a 2008-type downturn would wipe out more than a third of GDP growth and cost almost 120,000 jobs in the next decade.