Budget ’24: £118 million for Canary Wharf but little for housebuilding

Jeremy Hunt announced the new government cash for the 40ha east London Docklands estate alongside £124 million ‘to unlock 7,200 homes’ at the Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands-masterplan Barking Riverside and £4 million to set up the Euston Housing Delivery Group to drive forward plans for up to 10,000 new homes.

But industry leaders have hit out at this failure to unblock key issues holding the UK back from delivering many more thousands of much-needed homes.

Pocket Living founder and chief executive Marc Vlessing said: ‘The rapidly emerging consensus is that we need to deliver 500,000 new homes per year, yet we can barely manage 200,000 at present. We need action to save an SME house-building sector in crisis, yet despite intense campaigning by the sector we haven’t received a penny of support in this budget.’

He added that the chancellor had missed the government’s last chance ‘to unlock 1.6 million homes on brownfield sites through a fairer and faster planning system’ and to ‘support SMEs to rapidly increase housing delivery’.

Sam Richards, founder and campaign director for pro-growth campaign group Britain Remade, agreed that the budget had fallen short ‘of what is needed when it comes to building the economy-boosting homes Britain needs’.

He said: ‘[Our analysis] shows that building 300,000 homes, and doing so where housing costs are the highest, would not only mean young people could get on the housing ladder, it would significantly grow the economy by up to £22.5 billion.’

UKGBC deputy chief executive Simon McWhirter said he was also disappointed by the lack of measures for retrofitting existing leaky and inefficient homes. ‘Unfortunately, we’re yet again seeing vote-chasing sticking-plaster politics as opposed to the longer-term political leadership we so desperately need,’ he said.

‘The chancellor has failed to address the urgent need for upgrading our homes and buildings in this budget, which wouldn’t just help address the climate crisis, but also directly tackle rising energy bills, poor-quality homes and provide a jobs boost into the economy.’

RIBA president Muyiwa Oki agreed.  ‘[The] government has lost sight of the bigger picture and missed a key moment to improve our buildings – especially our homes,’ he said. ‘A weak economy, housing crisis and climate emergency demand urgent attention. Millions of substandard, ageing homes are leaking energy and money.

‘The government must bring forward a National Retrofit Strategy – a well-funded programme to boost the green economy, cut emissions and lower people’s energy bills.’

And while Oki welcomed the targeted funds for areas such as Barking and £20 million in a social finance fund to support the development of community-led housing schemes over 10 years, he described these as a ‘drop in the ocean’.

He added: ‘Without more support, we will fail to deliver the number of high-quality, sustainable homes and places the country needs. A simplified, well-resourced planning system will not only address housing challenges but boost sustainable development, grow the economy, and make people healthier and happier. It’s essential and long overdue.’’

Elsewhere, the chancellor announced £26.4 million to upgrade the stages and infrastructure at Denys Lasdun’s 1970s National Theatre on London’s South Bank.

The government also said it would match industry-led funding of £3 million for planning capacity and resourcing.period

Comment

Alex Lifschutz, founding director, Lifschutz Davidson SandilandsThis funding provides a significant boost to our masterplan for Barking Riverside, promising both affordable and reasonably priced market homes set in a picturesque new district of London.

The scheme’s mostly completed first phase features a dramatic hill town with magnificent south facing views over the Thames set above abundant ecology in wetlands and beaches.

A recently completed and highly sustainable transport system keeps motor vehicles well away from the wonderful riverside. Instead, a dedicated busway boulevard links every part of the district to a new central railway station, thence to Barking, and a new Uber Boat pier to stops along the river.

Victoria Hills, chief executive of the RTPIWe are consistently striving to ensure a continuing pipeline of qualified planners is entering the profession. The government’s decision to provide £3million match funding for an industry-backed scheme to train planning officers shows that the government recognises the recruitment challenges faced by the profession.

Our planning systems can become more efficient, effective, and accessible by harnessing technological innovation. Today’s announcements included a pilot of AI solutions to cut the time it takes for planning officers to process applications by 30 per cent could well be beneficial.

AI in planning should not come at the expense of real-world expertise

However, as with the implementation of any new technology, this should not come at the expense of the real-world expertise that our members provide but should support them to continue focusing on meeting local needs.

The government has also announced a consultation on the proposed design of a new accelerated planning service in England, along with new measures to limit the use of extension of time agreements. While we believe that decision-making speed and efficiency are important, they should not be prioritised over the quality of outcomes for communities. Measuring outcomes and impact on the ground is equally important.

David Crosthwaite, chief economist, BCISThe Spring Budget has continued the trend of fiscal events being distinctly underwhelming for the construction industry. There was very little in it that would give confidence to investors or to firms who are operating in still very challenging conditions.

ThecChancellor says he has a plan for ‘sustainable, long-term growth’ but we’re simply not seeing evidence of that in the announced policies and investment.

Commitments to housebuilding were limited to only certain areas and schemes

Despite construction being a key lever of economic growth via the multiplier effect, there was no increase in spending announced.

The repeated commitments to housebuilding were limited to only certain areas and schemes and there remain many questions over how the government intends to increase efficiencies in the planning process.

Likewise, the claim of investing in infrastructure is there, but still not enough detail following the cancellation of HS2 Phase 2 and promised ‘Network North’ plans.

Josie Parsons, chief executive, Local SpaceHomelessness and numbers of people in temporary accommodation are spiralling out of control, especially in London, with a huge increase in the number of households not in permanent housing over the last year. This is not only placing a huge financial pressure on local authorities already teetering on the brink, with cost increases of up to 40 per cent on temporary accommodation in the capital, but it is also having a huge social impact, especially on families with children.

While recent additional government funding to councils will go some way to mitigate the impact of this, we are extremely disappointed that this budget has not done more to address the challenge and done more to encourage the supply of new social rented housing in general.