Government gives the green light for the construction of thousands of Starter Homes

BSRIA has welcomed the government announcement that starter homes will be built this year after it chose 30 partner councils to progress the first discounted homes – in cities and regions across the country.

Gavin Barwell, Minister of State for Housing and Planning, said the homes would be sold exclusively to first time buyers between 23 and 40 years old, at a discount of at least 20 per cent below market value.
Brownfield sites are being prioritised for starter homes, with funding made available via the government’s £1.2bn Starter Homes Land Fund.

Mr Barwell said that this first wave of partnerships shows the strong local interest to build thousands of starter homes on hundreds of brownfield sites in the coming years.

The news comes in quick succession of the government announcement of the development of 14 new garden villages and three garden towns, with the capacity to deliver more than 48,000 homes.

Julia Evans, Chief Executive, BSRIA, said: “BSRIA welcomes both of these announcements which suggest that tackling the housing crisis is on the government’s agenda for 2017 and is clearly a top priority. It also supports BSRIA’s long running coverage of the housing issue.

“But building homes is a matter of quality as well as quantity. The focus on more volume makes quality more important than ever and an added emphasis on the status of the quality of homes is crucial to guarantee that in challenging the housing crisis we are not building the costly slums or soulless estates of tomorrow.

“Some of the ‘offsite’ building and zero waste methods that are currently being adopted do signify an exciting movement which offer the potential for changes within the industry.

“And of course government needs to offer the right framework for industry to address the ever increasing industry skills shortage to deliver such housing.

Government rhetoric has been going on forever: the proof will be in the pudding.”

The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) also support the Government announcement, but warn that greater challenges lie ahead if we are to solve our housing crisis.

Brian Berry, chief executive of the FMB, said: “It’s great to see the Housing Minister kick off 2017 by giving the green light to the first Starter Homes. These homes will help some first time buyers get a foot on the housing ladder, and our small house builders are enthusiastic about delivering on that vision, but starter homes will not be a panacea. A wider set of measures aimed at increasing the capacity of the house building industry are needed to overturn the long-term under-supply of new homes. Central to this must be getting small and medium-sized (SME) builders delivering more new homes. For instance, the announcement of 14 ‘garden villages’ and more garden towns needs to be backed up by implementation plans which provide opportunities to SME builders as well as the large companies.”

Berry concluded: “These are positive messages to start the year with and they show that the Government is putting house building at the front and centre of its ambitions for 2017. With a Housing White Paper expected in the next few weeks this will be an important year for housing policy and its success or failure will be a key part of the new PM’s legacy.”