Aldermore hosted a roundtable with small developers, senior Downing Street advisers and housing officials on Labour’s plans to build 1.5 million homes by the next election, last week.
The lender says the meeting was focused on the various barriers small firms are currently facing, from planning to developing and building, and regulatory solutions that would help unlock the potential of these developers and the housebuilding landscape.
Aldermore managing director of property Ross Dalzell argues that several moves could help contribute to the government’s target.
Dalzell says that greater use of modern methods of construction “could significantly accelerate delivery.”
Modern construction techniques, such as modular housing, can cut build times in half and require 50% fewer workers than traditional methods.
He adds: “Aldermore has therefore identified a need for wider education around modern methods of construction to increase uptake of such practices in the UK and calls for the creation of a national modern methods of construction strategy and warranty scheme, backed by the government.”
Dalzell also points out that government should “offer targeted incentives to SME developers to provide them with the confidence to build, such as the recently confirmed £100m in SME accelerator loans and the new national housing delivery fund.”
Earlier this year, Aldermore released a paper outlining plans to speed up home building.
Its proposals include introducing a tax on sites where development has not started within 12 months, which rises “over time to deter land banking”.
It also called for stamp duty cuts for buyers of new builds and tax breaks for developers that exceed delivery targets, “stimulating both demand and supply”.
There has been a flurry of meetings between the property industry and government in recent weeks.
Last Friday, new housing Secretary Steve Reed met developers and promised “a blitz of new measures” over the coming weeks and months, including new towns across the country and the landmark Planning and Infrastructure Bill passing into law”.
This Bill, introduced by the department and currently in the committee stage of the House of Lords, is central to Labour’s plan to build 1.5 million new homes by the next election.
The government says this legislation will sweep aside planning objections, allowing it to kick-start the building of new home developments and major infrastructure projects in the final three years of this parliament.
While the day before, housing minister Matthew Pennycook and new economic secretary Lucy Rigby met with high-street banks tomorrow and called on them to make first-time buyers their “top priority” as Labour focuses on boosting homeownership.
The ministers hosted a roundtable with senior bankers at the Treasury to press the case for an expansion of high loan-to-value lending and other measures to lift FTB homebuying.
The housing department said the ministers called “on lenders to make first-time buyers their top priority, taking advantage of the Leeds Reforms announced by the Chancellor in July to help more people with small deposits and low incomes get a mortgage.”
Rachel Reeves’ package of Leeds Reforms, aimed at growing the finance sector, included a move by the Financial Policy Committee, which saw it allow large and smaller lenders to underwrite more loans at over 4.5 times a buyer’s income.
