Government urged to think small on housebuilding targets

Small and medium-sized housebuilders are the key to delivering more new homes, according to Winkworth.

Adam Stackhouse, head of developments and commercial investments at the estate agency brand suggested the larger scale housebuilders that the Fovernment may attempt to seduce won't respond because they're probably obliged to honour their shareholder requirements. 

But he said smaller developers have a greater understanding of local markets.

He told the latest episode of Winkworth’s Property Exchange podcast: “Small to medium house builders are far more agile, and they can call on a local workforce with a degree of pace.  They're  more sensitive  to local architecture and community tastes. If we can encourage them to step forward and have decent banking facilities to build, this could start to snowball quite quickly.

“We've got to shift from this very low level of house building starts. We need a skilled workforce and the government must reinvest in training.  A decent standard of bricklayer, carpenter or electrician can be trained within three to four years.

“There's some excitement that finally, local authorities will absolutely have to meet their housing targets. We are moving into a new era.  The definition of new housing schemes in the UK is going to shift as the younger generation start taking more control and give more input over those decisions - with less of a threat from NIMBYs.”

Stackhouse said the lack of planning officers and the lack of infrastructure for decision making has created a vacuum, adding: “We now need to see people with fresh ideas to create homes more relevant to the modern working population, to an age group where they're not looking back in the housing history books but looking ahead as to how homes should look in the future. This is an opportunity for a completely new era in house building.”

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-property-exchange/id1569362828?i=1000663764179