Stewart Baseley, Executive Chairman of the Home Builders Federation (HBF), is calling on Prime Minister-designate Gordon Brown to mark his commitment to building new homes by creating a new role of ‘Secretary of State for Housing’ with a seat in cabinet. The proposal is part of a <LINK http://www.hbf.co.uk/index.php?id=1795&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=10537&tx_ttnews[backPid]=1793&cHash=245d10a1fc> ‘mini-manifesto’ </LINK> setting out five measures which HBF believes the new Prime Minister should prioritise in order to tackle the shortage of housing facing the country.
Commenting, Stewart Baseley says:
“Housing has not enjoyed its own Minister in Cabinet since 1969, when it was subsumed into the Department for the Environment. In the past, both Harold MacMillan and Sir Keith Joseph implemented ambitious housebuilding programmes from the top table in Government.
“It is time housing was once more given the priority it demands – a Cabinet Minister with specific responsibility for tackling Britain’s chronic housing shortage.
“HBF is also putting forward a number of proposals in a ‘mini-manifesto’, which if adopted by Gordon Brown, will help to address the chronic shortage of over 60,000 homes per year facing this country. Chief amongst these is the need to bring forward more land with implementable planning permission, in order for developers to be able to provide all types of home across the market to meet the needs of consumers.”
The measures which the HBF are calling to be adopted are:
More land with implementable planning permission
Reform of the planning system to reduce complexity and speed up decisions
An easing of the burden of regulation on the housing industry
A maintenance of the national framework target for zero-carbon homes, resisting the development of a multiplicity of confusing, unachievable local targets
Freedom for developers to respond to consumer demand with the range and types of homes they need
Download HBF Mini Manifesto
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Notes to editors:
1. The Home Builders Federation (HBF) is the principal trade federation for private sector home builders and voice of the home building industry in England and Wales. The HBF’s 300 member firms account for over 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. HBF’s Executive Chairman, Stewart Baseley, is writing to Prime Minister-elect Gordon Brown and the Labour Deputy Leadership candidates with HBF’s proposals for improving housing supply in Britain.
3. The attached document contains HBF’s full ‘Mini-manifesto,’ which makes the case to Government for reforms which would enable developers to effectively meet the housing shortage of over 60,000 homes per year.
4. In 2006, 160,000 homes were completed. In the same year, over 220,000 new households were formed. Government figures estimate that households will continue to rise at a rate of 223,000 per year until 2029.
For media information, please contact:
Paul Boulter
0207 421 6140
07814 506 378
paul.boulter@portlandpr.co.uk