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Housing White Paper: industry reaction to government proposals for new homes

Posted 7 February 2017 by Keith Osborne

The first in a series of articles reporting the views of housing industry experts on the long-awaited White Paper to tackle the problems of our housing market...

The much-anticipated government White Paper on housing, with its proposals to fix Britain’s “broken” housing market, was launched in the House of Commons today by communities secretary Sajid Javid and its wide-ranging proposals have led to a wealth of reaction from people connected to the property industry.

Here are some of the early comments from important figures from across the property market...


Greg Hill, deputy managing director at WhatHouse? Housebuilder of the Year 2015 Hill: “The Housing White Paper should empower SMEs to have the confidence to do something different, as innovation can be highly challenging in a restricted and confined sector. With the right support and by prioritising sensitive design, working in partnership and engaging with key stakeholders, SMEs will be able to flourish. As an established medium-sized housebuilder we have proved that it can be done, as demonstrated by The Avenue.

“SMEs are in the perfect position to step away from convention and embrace new designs and methods of construction due to their flexibility. We have the opportunity to engender greater collaboration and bridge the gap between housebuilders, local communities and local authorities. This will in turn allow us as an industry to build the homes which people not only need but will also love.”


Mark Hayward, managing director of the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA): “The government’s plans to help older people move at the right time and in the right way to free up homes for other buyers is an important issue and something we believe would make a big difference. Around two-fifths of homes in the UK are owned by those aged over 65, who have no desire to move as they do not want to sustain the costs or stress involved with moving. They are considered ‘bedroom blockers’ and are the main reason why there are a large number of homes with two or three spare bedrooms. We look forward to working with the government on how it aims to use the existing housing stock in a more efficient way.”


Jon Jennings, director of East Anglian estate agents Cheffins: “Today’s Housing White Paper is yet again an effort from the government to increase productivity for housebuilders and try and speed up the planning process. There is a fine balance to be found here and we must ensure that our countryside is protected from inappropriate development whilst still providing enough new homes built to meet the UK’s chronic levels of demand.

“Measures to protect the green belt whilst still delivering on the forecasted one million new homes by 2020 do seem to be at odds with one another and it will be interesting to see how this develops over the coming months. The councils now need to play a pivotal role in increasing output and delivery in a sustainable manner and by announcing that councils can take land out of the green belt in only ‘exceptional circumstances’ once again brings the responsibility of delivery to each of the UK’s individual districts. Measures to decrease land-banking should also play a positive role in increasing the numbers of new homes built and we should certainly see an increase in available land once these restrictions on developers are put into practice.”


Lizzie Stevens, acting director of rent at Folio London: “It is great that renting has finally been acknowledged as a long-term tenure of choice, without putting so much emphasis on buying. At Folio London, we have always offered longer tenancies up to three years, so it will be interesting to see if the law changes and we can offer longer. Typically our average tenancy is 12 months, but we anticipate this will start to change as the market develops. Longer tenancies will no doubt be beneficial for families who are looking for long term stability, for example near to their preferred schools.

“Furthermore, the Build to Rent focus is great for us at Folio London, and could come with additional funding to increase our portfolio size, to provide more rental homes for London’s tenants.”


Nick Sanderson, CEO of multi-WhatHouse? Award-winning Audley Retirement: “The government has missed a valuable opportunity. The paper includes a proposal to bring a statutory duty on local planners to show they are meeting the need to provide suitable housing. Good. But delaying putting in place any actual initiatives lacks drive, and misses the point. The point that our population is getting older. And fast. A commitment to ‘all types of housing’ must include the swift provision of high-quality retirement housing, which, alongside financial incentives to downsize in the form of long-overdue reforms to stamp duty, will address the lack of movement at the top end of the market. If the view is that the housing model is broken, a continued laser-focus generating supply at the bottom end is not the answer.”


Chief executive of The Housing & Finance Institute and former government housing adviser, Natalie Elphicke: “There are a large number of technical issues which the Housing White Paper sets out for consultation. This is a technically strong rather than a radical white paper. 

“Planning reform over many years has resulted in hundreds of thousands of homes with planning permission. Building more homes faster requires effective infrastructure funding and utilities to deliver in line with development needs. The Housing & Finance Institute is leading a national housing infrastructure pilot in the South East area in this area so welcomes the strong focus for housing infrastructure.”

"The White Paper is a missed opportunity to create a step change in innovative finance and modern tenures like rent and buy which support building at scale but also provide housing choice and housing ownership.”


Paul Smith, CEO of haart estate agents: “Today’s white paper exhibits a government that continues to shy away from the radical changes that have the potential to really shake up the industry. Favouring tried-and-tested policies such as increasing the use of brownfield sites and bolstering SME housebuilders are old hat, they have not been able to make a significant difference in the past – what’s to say they will do now? We needed to see radical use of green belt land to really deliver change.

“It was particularly disappointing to see that there was no mention of stamp duty, which is a major obstacle for both first-time buyers and downsizers. Housing problems need to be beaten from both ends of the market – something that today’s government has sorely failed to recognise. Sajid Javid has declared the UK housing market as “broken”, however has failed to produce the tool kit to fix it. Today’s paper held the key to make real change – but was handled by a government who was not prepared to make it.”


Frank Pennal, CEO of the property division of Close Brothers: “Small housebuilders regularly cite land, planning and finance as the major barriers to expansion, and so today's whitepaper provides a welcome and meaningful way forward to address these issues. Speeding up the planning process, and releasing more small and medium size land plots is a significant step forwards. 

“Together with the £3bn Home Builders Fund introduced earlier this year, this White Paper will help smaller housebuilders to unlock their potential and make a significant contribution to covering the current shortfall in UK housing development. With estimates that 60% of new homes are currently built by just 10 big building firms, the new housing strategy will further encourage smaller construction firms to complement large housebuilders who have been dominating the sector.”


Read more reactions to the White Paper here

Read further reactions to the White Paper here

Read another collection of reactions to the White Paper here

Read the government White Paper in full here.


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