More new homes ‘urgently needed’ to avert housing crisis

The government must do more to boost the supply of much needed new homes in this country, including affordable homes, in order to help alleviate the mounting housing crisis, according to Kim Vernau, chief executive officer, BLP Insurance, a housing warranty provider.

Commenting on the outlook for property and construction in 2014, Vernau said: "We urgently need to provide additional housing to meet the increasing demand that we are seeing for property in the UK."

In order to boost help met growing demand for housing, Vernau insisted that it was "vitally important" that developers build new homes that are "both sustainable and cost effective".

"Producing housing that fails to meet these criteria is not a solution as it becomes a problem over time," she added.

Vernau believes that the solution to the shortage of new homes lies with government and the need to cut planning red tape to make it easier for housebuilders to develop more much needed properties.

She continued: "This starts from the planning stage in terms of the quality of the build. Furthermore, we need to consider the effects on local communities and ensure that new housing developments have the right infrastructure available to support them and provide residents with enough schools and hospitals.

"A considered and effective neighbourhood plan with buy-in from all affected parties is key to the success of such development."

Reflecting on the current lack of available land, Vernau acknowledged that this was a problem, but said that BLP Insurance endorse the government's initiative to enable communities to improve their local area by giving them the right to ask that under-used or unused land owned by public bodies be brought back into use.