Land release

HBA urges government to enable SME builders through land release fund



The House Builders Association (HBA) wants the government to ensure that the £45m land release fund helps SME housebuilders to “do their job”.


The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) launched the £45m release fund to ensure local councils released some of their surplus land for housing.

The government hopes that the funding will release enough public land to build 160,000 new homes by 2020.

The HBA – the housebuilding division of the National Federation of Builders (NFB) – has welcomed the move, but hopes it will enable SME builders to create more homes in their local community.

“While the announcement of extra money to unlock land for new homes is certainly welcome, we must ensure that it ends up enabling SME housebuilders to do their job,” said Rico Wojtulewicz, policy adviser for the HBA.
 
“SMEs unlock supply more quickly, drive a competitive local market and win work on reputation.

“They also employ and train the majority of construction employees, retaining two out of three of them.

“We cannot waste those intrinsic values for another decade." 



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