HBF responds to the Conservative Party's proposals for expanding the role of Community Land Trusts
Responding to today's announcement by the Conservative Party that it is to set up a taskforce to investigate how to extend the use of Community Land Trusts to help first time buyers, Stewart Baseley, Executive Chairman of the Home Builders Federation, says:
"Given the scale of the housing supply crisis, it is sensible to look at all options for improving the position - particularly for those who are finding it difficult to enter the market for the first time.
"The paramount national need is for more land to come forward for housing development so that the home building industry can provide the additional homes that are needed. The possible role of Community Land Trusts must be judged in relation to this overriding requirement.
"Mechanisms such as Community Land Trusts will need to complement rather than compete with the mainstream land market and getting this relationship right will be critical. Careful assessment of the role of Trusts and how they might work will therefore be needed to ensure that they genuinely provide an additional means of improving housing supply, supplementing what the industry is already doing."
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 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) Conservatives to help first time buyers fulfil their ownership dream by following Martin Luther King, Conservative Party Press Release, 2 January 2007. Contact: 0207 984 8121
3) The extent of Britain's housing undersupply:
The rate of household formation is set to increase by 23% over the next twenty years. If housing supply remains at 2005 levels, there will be a shortage of 50,000 homes each year across England (ODPM statistical release, household projection figures, 14 March 2006)
Accessibility to the housing ladder is 300% worse in 2006 than in 1996 (RICS Accessibility Index, 24 August 2006).
More than a third of all working households under 40 cannot now afford to buy a home even at the low end of the housing market. In the South of England, the situation is even worse, with half of all working households under 40 in this position (Joseph Rowntree Foundation research, 21 September 2006)
Seven out of ten of today's ten year olds will not be able to afford to buy their own homes if current rates of homebuilding are continued (ODPM figures, 10 October 2005)
For media information, please contact:
Toby Orr
0207 404 5344
07736 175311