DEVELOPERS are set to pull the plug on major house building projects due to the economic crisis, a leading association has warned.
The National Association of Property Buyers (NAPB) also said the Government’s target to build 300,000 homes a year is now “dead in the water”.
And the NAPB believes planning regulations need to be relaxed to kickstart projects and building programmes to boost housing supply.
Spokesman Jonathan Rolande said: “Along with quite a few other pledges from the Conservative’s manifesto, the target to build 300,000 new homes a year by the mid 2020’s is now all but abandoned. It’s dead in the water.
“Over the last 12 months, housebuilder shares for the big three companies have dropped 50% of their worth. So, unless there is government assistance or a miraculous improvement in the economic outlook, work on many sites will stop. There is a real risk we will see the plug pulled on many major house building projects across the UK.
“To try and remedy this, we need planning changes which speed up the process. Any changes to planning rules are always controversial as they have to take into account all sorts of factors at variance with each other. But with the property market in turmoil and a general expectation that prices will fall, the government cannot rely on housebuilders alone to meet demand and solve the chronic lack of supply.”
In their 2019 election manifestos, all the main political parties included commitments to increase housing supply in England.
The Conservative manifesto pledged to “continue to increase the number of homes being built” and referred to a need to rebalance the housing market towards more home ownership.
It said progress towards a target of 300,000 homes per year by the mid-2020s would continue, which would “see us build at least a million more homes, of all tenures, over the next Parliament.”
