➡️ Address growing viability pressures.
➡️ Provide near-term support for potential buyers.
➡️ Ensure planning reform is matched by measures that keep sites deliverable.

Without tackling both viability and affordability, housing targets will remain out of reach.

However, the Budget sadly represents a missed opportunity to provide support for first-time buyers. With affordable mortgage lending still limited, demand remains suppressed, constraining builders’ ability to increase supply.

To deliver on its housing ambitions, Government must now

🔹 £48 million to boost planning capacity, including the recruitment of 350 additional planners and a new Planning Careers Hub.
🔹 Reforms to improve the performance of environmental regulators, supporting quicker decisions for major projects
🔹 Confirmation of a 10-year social housing rent settlement

However, while proposals to increase Landfill Tax by 3000% have been dropped, the revised approach still represents an increase in tax on development at a time when the economics of home building are already under considerable strain.

We do welcome the announcements of…

💡Raise the threshold for small sites to provide meaningful relief for SME builders, encouraging more development of smaller-scale projects.

💡Address challenges within the Section 106 Affordable Housing market.

💡Reconsider the proposed abolition of the Reduced Rate of Landfill Tax, which will see costs increase by 3,000%.

💡Suspend the planned Building Safety Levy and instead seek contributions from product manufacturers and other responsible actors.

💡Stimulate demand through a new equity loan scheme for first-time buyers.

💡Impose a moratorium on further new policy costs, taxes & levies on home building, along with a comprehensive analysis of the unprecedented increase in policy costs imposed from across government departments in recent years.

💡Reduce Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and Section 106 obligations as these requirements place a heavier burden on SMEs relative to larger developers, undermining site viability.

💡Introduce common adoptable standards and mandate the adoption of public amenities on private estates, in line with the Competition and Markets Authority’s recommendations

💡Minimise the costs, delays, and uncertainty associated with utility and infrastructure connections

💡Raise the threshold for small sites to provide meaningful relief for SME builders, encouraging more development of smaller-scale projects.

💡Address challenges within the Section 106 Affordable Housing market.

💡Reconsider the proposed abolition of the Reduced Rate of Landfill Tax, which will see costs increase by 3,000%.

💡Suspend the planned Building Safety Levy and instead seek contributions from product manufacturers and other responsible actors.

💡Stimulate demand through a new equity loan scheme for first-time buyers.

💡Impose a moratorium on further new policy costs, taxes & levies on home building, along with a comprehensive analysis of the unprecedented increase in policy costs imposed from across government departments in recent years.

…Because the cumulative burden of these costs is preventing home builders from getting spades in the ground and directly undermines Government’s housing ambitions.

#StateOfPlay

🚫Biodiversity Net Gain

🚫Future Homes Standard

🚫Electric vehicle charging

🚫Building Safety Levy

We recognise the need for many of these policies, but Government must zoom out and consider the real operational impact…

The Government’s commitments to build more homes and the planning change introduced to date are welcome, but the scale of the challenge demands broader thinking.

Affordability and viability are key areas of concern that we hope to see addressed in next week's #Budget 💼

Net additions are now 16% below their 2019/20 peak of 248,600, with 190,600 new build homes delivered in 2024/25, down 4% on the previous year.

Today's stats speak for themselves, further evidencing the urgent need for meaningful action to support housing delivery.

📍Implement a short-term solution to get Registered Providers’ support in contracting Section 106 Affordable Homes

#StateOfPlay

With the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget one week away, we’re calling on Government to 👇

📍Introduce a new homeownership scheme, part-funded by developers

📍Restore the previous first-time buyer Stamp Duty thresholds, while a review is carried out to determine the impact of this on the housing market