07 Feb2017
£3bn Home Building Fund is to be created to help small building firms build more new homes
Written by Protek Warranty. Posted in Construction, House Building, News and current affairs, structural warranty
A £3bn government backed Home Building Fund is set to increase the number of new homes being built in England. The fact we need more new homes is not a surprise to anyone. Demand has been outstripping supply for a long time and that clearly doesn’t help the first time buyer, who has been wrestling with price escalation for years. The Communities Secretary Sajid Javid is publishing a White Paper later today which is aimed at helping first-time buyers get on the housing ladder. The White Paper has three aims:
- Getting Homes Built in the right places
- Speeding Up House Building
- Diversifying the market
The approach sounds similar to the model
NACSBA championed for the Custom Build and Self Build sectors. That model saw policy changes that were focused on removing the core barriers. It also worked on local authorities views on housing demand and saw the generation of a revolving building fund.
According to the HSA information published, finance is going to be available to all private sector organisations involved in delivering new homes and the provision of enabled sites ready for residential led schemes.
HSA Home Building Fund Core criteria
■ applicants will need to demonstrate that without this funding the scheme would not progress as quickly, or at all
■ developments must be in England
■ the borrower must be a private sector entity which has majority control of the site
■ development projects must build a minimum of 5 homes
■ the borrower must be a UK registered corporate entity
■ infrastructure projects must ultimately lead to the development of new housing
■ the minimum investment the Fund will make is £250,000, except in the case of innovative housing solutions and serviced plots for custom builders
Its going to be interesting to see if this approach does create the change we really need. The UK’s largest builders currently control the new home market, so the creation of a £3 billion Home Building fund to help small builders, community builders, custom builders and regeneration specialists is certainly a step in the right direction.