Housing taskforce set to call for a more holistic approach to new home building in UK

A report will be published in the New Year from the National Housing Taskforce giving recommendations on the challenges faced by the UK property industry and how to drive up supply.

It is expected to say that tangible solutions are needed to build more new homes and believes that a holistic housing policy involving the industry and Government is needed.

The taskforce, set up under the leadership of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), has already undertaken detailed inquiries into the nature of the challenges facing the country with the aim of formulating clear ideas to boost construction.

It met just before the end of 2016 to share ideas, refine draft recommendations and plan how to embed them in Government policy prior to the final policy proposals being published at the start of 2017.

‘The key drivers of the taskforce are a desire to inspire action and build a grand coalition across both party and sector lines that will prompt real change,’ said Lewis Johnston
RICS parliamentary affairs manager.

He explained that at the final taskforce board meeting of 2016, it was decided that recommendations will be unique to the particular challenges they are designed to address, however, certain common themes have emerged.

Chief amongst these is the overwhelming desire for Government to take a more holistic approach to housing policy, which reflects the interconnectedness of the sector and aims to drive up supply across all tenures, not just home ownership.

‘We are encouraged to see signs of a rhetorical shift in this direction in recent months, with Housing Minister Gavin Barwell expressing his commitment to pull on all available levers to increase supply,’ Johnston pointed out.

He also pointed out that with the Government’s Housing White Paper due to be published in January 2017, the taskforce is in a unique position to turn rhetoric into reality.

Particular areas of focus for the final report will be measures to boost the number and range of organisations that are involved in delivering homes, greater flexibility on tenures that can be provided and unlocking the land and capital that developers need to increase supply.