He emphasised that more houses need to be built and there’s probably a shortfall of a million of the right types of homes.
The government wants local authorities to encourage self-build as one way to help tackle the housing crisis, Douglas Cochrane, head of housing development at Lloyds Banking Group has suggested at the FSE London.
But he said one of the challenges is where people complain to the council if homes are built nearby them.
Cochrane said: “Every local authority has an obligation to build enough to satisfy people on the register in their area.
“With more publicity, one thing the government is looking at is to create an entry level to building homes with a type of self-build where people can buy a plot of land and potentially dial up two or three property types. There’s lots more to come out of that.”
He emphasised that more houses need to be built and there’s probably a shortfall of a million of the right types of homes. Building a house on average creates 3.1 jobs so there’s also an economic benefit.
Cochrane added: “Every local authority should have a local plan that identifies the needs of that community and is this part of the government’s plan of what needs to be done to overhaul the process. Not every community has a plan though.”
In England there’s 22 lenders offering Help to Buy, nine lenders offering 95% LTV Help to Buy loans for new build houses only five lenders offering 95% LTV Help to Buy loans for new build flats.
Cochrane added: “I do think it’s something we have to challenge and look at and make sure it’s part of the conversation. We don’t know future of the Help to Buy scheme is.”
