7th April 2009 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Conservative Party plans to allow communities to deliver the new housing that they want and need is good in principle but offers no guarantee that they will actually deliver the millions of homes that are needed to house the five million people on council house waiting lists, warns the Federation of Master Builders in its response to today’s Conservative Party’s housing green paper, ‘Extending Opportunities: A Conservative Policy Paper on Housing’.
Brian Berry, Director of External Affairs, at the FMB said:
“At a time when the house building industry is on its knees and millions of people are wanting an affordable home the Conservatives Party’s ‘bottom-up’ approach to housing offers little hope to either the construction industry or to those needing a home. In fact abandoning national housing targets could easily become a charter for NIMBYs (Not In My Backyard) who want to stop housing development in their area.”
Berry continued:
“What is needed is a fiscal stimulus to kick-start the house building industry. An investment of £5billion would create 55,000 jobs in the construction sector and help deliver the homes that are needed. It is also disappointing that Conservative housing plans make no mention of the need to cut VAT to five percent or property refurbishment as this would help bring the 950,000 empty homes across the UK back into use.”
Berry concluded:
“What is encouraging is that the Conservatives acknowledge the part that housing must play to help the UK move towards becoming a low carbon economy. A grant of £6,500 to householders for energy efficient improvements is a welcome step to make our housing stock greener and more energy efficient. However, grants should be coupled with a cut in VAT if we are to make the leap that is required to create a low carbon Britain.”
