Chancellor Phillip Hammond abolished stamp duty and announced a review of review of the gap in planning permission and the actual building of houses, but the founder and chief executive of eMoov.co.uk,Russell Quirk, doubts his promises.
Estate agent eMoov labelled today’s today’s Autumn Budget a “little more than the annual dose of rhetoric and empty announcements of bold plans”.
Chancellor Philip Hammond abolished stamp duty and announced a review of review of the gap in planning permission and the actual building of houses, but the founder and chief executive of eMoov.co.uk,Russell Quirk, doubts his promises.
Quirk said:"Today’s Budget has amounted to little more than the annual dose of rhetoric and empty announcements of bold plans, extolling a robust intent to build more housing.
“The Treasury’s ‘pledge’ to build more homes is a story we’ve been told many times before, but these well-worn, heady platitudes have not been fulfilled since way, way back in 1969 when the Beatles were topping the charts.
“The likelihood of hitting the ambitious target of 1 million homes by 2050 is slim, to say the least, and one that is unlikely to be hit. The ‘urgent’ review of the gap in planning permission and the actual building of houses is also far too little too late and should have been implemented many budgets ago.
“The government must actually execute on a housing plan if the current housing crisis is to be remedied and not just grab headlines with their unqualified so-called intentions. This problem is not just about money. It’s about action and it’s about listening to experts within the industry for once.
“A cut in stamp duty for first-time buyers is the only real sign of good intent by Chancellor Hammond and one that may help reignite the property market momentarily, but some may say acts as yet another diversion from the elephant in the room of a continued failure to build a meaningful number of affordable homes. Indeed a cynical electoral bribe."
