The current parliament is on track to deliver over 1mn new houses across its tenure, chancellor Jeremy Hunt said during his Budget.
During the budget, Hunt stated: “We want to level up opportunities across the generations, including building more houses for young people, and we’re on track to deliver over a million homes in this parliament.”
The government added it was committed to building more homes and supporting more first-time buyers onto the housing ladder.
Regional support
Hunt said, following on from the allocation of £188mn to support projects in Sheffield, Blackpool and Liverpool, he was allocating £242mn to housing projects in London.
This aims to unlock 7,200 homes in Barking and up to 750 homes and a new life sciences hub in Canary Wharf.
Together director of corporate sales, Elliot Vure, said this £242mn pot “would lead to the creation of new jobs, housing and help preserve the green shoots of economic recovery”.
Hunt additionally stated the government was launching a new £20mn community led housing scheme.
This would support local communities to “deliver the developments they want and need” and build up to 3,000 new homes.
The Budget also confirmed the future development corporation in Cambridge will receive a long-term funding settlement at the next spending review.
This will allow it to start delivering on the government’s plan to “unleash the economic potential of the city”, by building new homes and increasing the amount of lab space.
But Coventry Building Society head of intermediary relationships, Jonathan Stinton, pointed out an absence of first-time buyers in the Budget.
"First time buyers weren’t even tossed a crumb.”
He explained: “This Budget could have been an opportunity to present new innovative schemes which help buyers with affordability as well as saving for a deposit – but not even the bare minimum was done.
"It’s not only incredibly disappointing, it feels like a big mis-step on the chancellor's part. First time buyers are the foundation on which the rest of the housing market stands. Failing to give them proper help is failing to help the rest of the market."
Lastly, Hunt announced the launch of round two of the Local Nutrient Mitigation Fund, which will support delivery of 30,000 homes by 2030 that would otherwise have stalled due to high levels of nutrient pollution.
tom.dunstan@ft.com
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