There were no new schemes to boost housing in George Osborne’s Budget speech delivered today, to the industry’s disappointment.
John Phillips, group operations director of Spicer Haart and Just Mortgages, said: “Despite George Osborne’s ‘we are the builders’ mantra, he admitted that the country’s failure to build more housing has been identified as a major problem. Although he said the focus will be on speeding up the planning system, he gave very little explanation as to how this will actually be achieved, which raises more questions than it answers.
“Osborne also re-stated the residential stamp duty reforms that will come into force next month and confirmed that large investors with more than 15 properties in their portfolios will be covered. However, until real measures are taken and building activity increases substantially, the long-term issue around demand for houses and the lack of housing supply means affordability will remain a significant challenge.
“It is therefore crucial that more work is done to get the homes built that the growing population desperately needs, and I’m surprised that his key priority wasn’t housing.”
Richard Pike, Phoebus Software sales and marketing director, added: “For a budget that claims to be for the next generation there was a disappointing lack of definitive measures to improve what the Chancellor admits is a failure in the UK to provide new housing.
“If we are the builders, as Mr Osborne states, what exactly is the government doing to help? The introduction of a more simple way for the younger generation to save is of course welcome, but if they are saving for houses that don’t exist how is this beneficial in the short term?
“No doubt in the coming months the details of how the government intend to speed up the planning system will emerge, but how effective these measures will be is questionable. As far as the budget today is concerned it has left us asking many more questions than it answers – exactly how high up the priority list is the UK’s housing problem?”
