Responding to a report published by the CPRE which claims that increased land supply will have little effect on house prices, Executive Chairman of the Home Builders Federation Stewart Baseley says:
“CPRE’s research compares apples with oranges. It wrongly assumes that because land is identified in Local Plans that it will automatically be developed. Simply identifying land does not build a single new home. What counts is a steady supply of land with planning permission that is viable for building new homes.
“The CPRE needs to face up to the fact that Government figures show that annual housing land supply for development has been falling steadily for more than a decade and actually fell by 7% between 1997 and 2003. The only way that more homes can be built and the significant undersupply of housing reversed is by significantly increasing the amount of land with planning permissions for building.
“The choice is stark – either we release more land for development, or a generation of young people will miss out on the opportunity for home ownership.”
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Notes for 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 some 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
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