Yesterday (3rd March) chancellor Rachel Reeves (pictured above) gave her spring statement speech to parliament which lacked any new policies or updates, aimed at housing or otherwise.

With the chancellor instead discussing the economy, major construction and housing groups have complained more support should have been pledged to the sector.

Brian Berry, CEO at the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), said this means small builders are still waiting for practical measures to help them compete.

As such, he said “without clear policy detail” little would occur in the way of results.

“This Spring Statement could have set out concrete steps to support small and medium-sized builders to deliver the homes the country desperately needs, accelerate energy?efficient retrofitting, and introduce a robust licensing system to raise standards across the industry,” said Brian.

“If the government is serious about economic growth, improved productivity, and meeting its housing and climate ambitions, it must move quickly from rhetoric to action and put small builders at the heart of its plans.”

Similarly, Neil Jefferson — CEO at the Home Builders Federation (HBF) — said more was required to help construction firms meet the “ambitious targets” set by the government to deliver 1.5 million homes.

In particular, Neil pointed out how housing developments are already having to deal with new taxes, levies and policy costs.

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“Alongside this, home builders are also facing demand-side challenges, as potential home buyers are, for the first time, without the support of a government-backed scheme to support first-time buyers' access to the housing market,” said Neil.

“Our suggested equity loan scheme offers a real solution to this issue.

“A targeted first-time buyer equity loan scheme, part-funded by developers that would restore access to affordable mortgage finance, support new housing delivery, create jobs and growth.”

Others were more understanding. Rico Wojtulewicz, director of policy and market insight at the National Federation of Builders, recognised that the government is still consulting on reforms around planning and other areas.

As such, Rico was not expecting new funding announcements in the Spring Statement, but sees this as putting pressure on the Autumn Budget.

“It takes time for laws to be made and projects to benefit from changes — 300,000 homes a year by 2030 is realistic but means that the 1.5 million new home commitment is unlikely to be met,” said Rico.

“To help ramp up housebuilding and construction capacity, we hope the Autumn budget will be used to increase market confidence through a new Help to Buy scheme, to pump-prime key infrastructure projects, to ensure unspent planning contributions are spent or returned,  to let Homes England off the leash, and to find ways to help SME housebuilders and regional contractors in both procurement and planning.”