Older Policy Work

HBF members are major providers of Affordable Housing in Britain through planning agreements (S106 agreements) on private housing sites. According to official statistics, in 2005-06, S106 agreements with house builders accounted for 55% of all Affordable Housing provided by local authorities or RSLs, and 61% of new dwellings for social rent.

The Barker Review of Housing Supply was commissioned by the Chancellor and the Deputy Prime Minister in March 2003. An Interim Report was published on 10 December 2003 and the Final Report, which included 36 recommendations, was released on 17 March 2004.

"Building for life" is a design tool to measure and assess good design for new homes that is supported by the house building and architectural industries as well as Government and Local Authorities.

The Callcutt Review of Housebuilding Delivery was published on Thursday, 22 November 2007.

HBF and ITN Productions have produced a film ‘Foundations for the Future’ that explores some of the key issues currently facing the UK house building industry.

The impact of the housing crisis is now being truly understood at both local and national level with considerable focus now on political parties’ policies for addressing the chronic shortage of housing that has developed over several decades.

Innovate For Homes was set up in January 2007 by the Home Builders Federation and the Construction Products Association for the benefit of home builders and product suppliers and indeed the new home buying public. In 2013 Innovate for Homes evolved into a new initiative – The Housebuilder Product Awards, launched by HBF's media arm Housebuilder Media.

Sorry but the NewBuy scheme has now ended For more information about other schemes to assist you buy a home, such as Help to Buy, go to: www.new-homes.co.uk. House builders with any queries about Newbuy should contact info@hbf.co.uk

The OFT has published the results of its market study. A copy of the main report is available on the HBF web site. A copy of the full report, including 24 annexes, is available at www.oft.gov.uk/homebuilding.

Property portal Rightmove has launched a £100k charitable fund aimed at helping employees working in the house building and estate agency sectors raise money for their own chose charities.

HBF wrote (30th April 2010) to Dr Vince Cable, Liberal Democrat shadow chancellor, about the LibDem Manifesto commitment to levy a positive rate of VAT on new homes. HBF’s letter and accompanying paper highlight the damaging consequences this would have for housing supply, the economy and the public finances.

The Government is aiming to make all new build homes zero carbon by 2016. This will be supported by the Code for Sustainable Homes, the Planning Policy Statement on Climate Change and stamp duty relief for zero carbon homes.