Last month’s Spring Statement delivered by Chancellor Rachel Reeves introduced several measures that impact the UK’s housing and mortgage sectors. However, along with many industry commentators, I have serious doubts about how many of these measures will be implemented, plus I believe that the fundamentals of how the market operates continue to be misunderstood.

As such, this leads it to this being very much a missed opportunity for everyone involved in the sector, but more importantly those seeking to own their own home.

Let’s summarise some of the areas covered:

A significant highlight was the government’s commitment to invest an additional £2bn into the Affordable Homes Programme. This funding aims to support the construction of up to 18,000 affordable and social homes, contributing to the broader goal of building 1.5 million homes by 2030.

The Chancellor emphasised reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), reintroducing mandatory housing targets and facilitating development on greybelt land. These changes are projected to result in the construction of an additional 170,000 homes over the forecast period, potentially increasing the UK’s real GDP by 0.2% by 2029-30 and by over 0.4% by 2034-35.

The Spring Statement did not extend the stamp duty reliefs introduced in 2022. The thresholds have now reverted to previous levels. As such, this reversion will increase the financial burden on homebuyers, with estimates suggesting that approximately 74,000 buyers may collectively pay an additional £142m in stamp duty.

As we know, the changes prompted a surge in transactions as buyers dashed to complete purchases before the deadline.(UK house buyers paid out a massive £1.4bn in stamp Duty as they rushed to beat the March 2025 deadline, according to the latest figures from HMRC).

In terms of tackling housing supply, the government has allocated £600m to train up to 60,000 new construction workers through educational and apprenticeship programs. This initiative aims to bolster the workforce necessary to meet ambitious housing targets and ensure the timely delivery of planned developments. However, let’s be honest, where these new workers will come from is a mystery and with the recent NI increase, I have serious doubts the construction industry will wish to employ this amount of people without a more solid commitment from the government to drive more new home sales.

As an old boss said to me, don’t give me problems, give me solutions and I think it’s very easy for the above to be criticised without giving some thoughts as to solutions or what could be done differently.

Despite many faults in the above measures, the fact that this Labour Government has housing high on its agenda is good for all of us who work in the housing, property and property finance sectors, as it indicates a willingness for this sector to succeed and those in power at Westminster are keen for it to do so for the benefit of the electorate.

In terms of the areas that I think still need to be addressed, they fall into the following two broad categories:

Private Rental Sector

The policy for everyone to have a clean and safe roof over their heads is at risk whilst we continue to hammer landlords and force more and more to exit the market, so leaving a shortage of rental stock, which will drive up prices for many who can least afford it.

I won’t go into a rant here about the Renters Rights Bill, but alongside the proposed changes to Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) that is under consultation currently which aims to upgrade 5 million homes across the country, the uncertainty is making some landlords question their viability going forward.

The key headline from the consultation is the uplifting of current minimum energy efficiency standards, from Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating E all the way to EPC Rating C or equivalent.

The proposed date in which domestic landlords will need to achieve this by is 2030. This proposal will expect to uplift 52% of private rented homes in England to a new EPC standard. How all this is going to be funded is a huge question, plus also who is going to do the work – we only have five years?

Let’s just give UK landlords a break, they are fundamental to the UK economy and have helped fill in the shortfall that has been left by successive governments in failing to provide enough social housing – we need to support them, not bash them. The tenants will ultimately suffer, we need to change the narrative about landlords, our country needs them!

Buyer Demand

For developers to have the confidence to build more new homes, they need to be confident that there isn’t a shortage of would-be buyers. However, the ongoing cost of living concerns, pressures on mortgage affordability, plus no sign of the replacement of Help to Buy or something similar makes that demand uncertain. Also, they can’t also rely on overseas investors and/or property investors buying properties, as again, the government has stifled growth from these areas.

Whether we do something on stamp duty or a version of Help to Buy, we need to create demand, otherwise there is no incentive for developers to build if they can’t sell.

Alongside this, we recently saw the first change by a major lender, Santander, in loosening their mortgage affordability rules following a push from the FCA and government for banks to be more flexible with their lending. As I have mentioned earlier, affordability is still a concern and a barrier for many, so I welcome this, albeit cautiously.

We have been there before when lenders relax credit policy without adequate controls and despite everything that is happening and that has happened in the world recently, we are still in a reasonably benign economic period. As that changes, and it will as these things are cyclical, we need to ensure we don’t build a problem for ourselves in the future yet to come.

We all know that a buoyant housing market will help support the government’s ambitions to deliver economic growth and so the measures being taken on stamp duty, as well as the new Renters Rights Bill will only serve to stall their growth plans.

I sincerely hope that the government is listening to the industry, as I believe we are in a strong position to solve many of the issues faced around home ownership and providing adequate rental stock. The UK property market is incredibly resilient, but it does need some sensible policies, plus sensible plans to implement them and as yet, I am unsure we have both.

Hiten Ganatra is managing director at Visionary Finance