We call for more support for SME housebuilders to deliver affordable homes

Today at the Labour Party annual conference CPRE and the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) took part in a panel discussion hosted by SME4Labour, to talk about how the government can support small and medium-sized housebuilders (SMEs) to deliver more genuinely affordable homes.

CPRE chief executive Roger Mortlock and FMB chief executive Brian Berry were joined on the panel by journalist Vicky Spratt, president of RIBA Muyima Oki, and housing minister Jim McMahon.

Together, CPRE and FMB are calling for the planning system to be simplified for SMEs, with more support available from planning officers, and for the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to include provision for SMEs in housing land supply.

We also want to see ‘affordable’ redefined in line with local average incomes rather than market rates, ambitious targets for genuinely affordable and social rented homes, as well as tougher measures to ensure developers deliver on their commitments to deliver affordable homes.

The housebuilding industry is dominated by a small number of big players. Despite their huge profits, these firms have failed to deliver the genuinely affordable homes people in this country desperately need.

Large developers can afford to pay over-inflated prices for land that, particularly in rural areas, they often leave undeveloped in order to maintain house prices and maximise profit.

SMEs, on the other hand, tend to build homes quickly, at more affordable prices and on brownfield sites close to where people already live work and go to school. They have been priced out of the market by large developers and their absence has a negative impact on people’s ability to buy affordable homes in the right places.

You can read our policy solutions paper ‘Diversifying supply: Reviving the nation’s small house builders’ here.