Housing once again takes centre stage as it often does around budget and Autumn Statement time as the government acknowledges two things – how chronic the housing shortage is in the UK and how important an aspiration homeownership is to the vast majority of people.
We’ve seen plenty of pledges before to increase the number of housing starts, but this actually appears to be the most concrete of the recent promises made and 400,000 new homes will ease the burden on existing stock.
The £2bn of financial support for developers from the government will help get projects off the ground, but won’t solve the nation’s housing problems overnight. Specialist finance, and bridging lending in particular, still has a vital role to play in securing plots and getting the ball rolling on new developments – as well as the refurbishment of previously uninhabitable properties – if the ambitious projections are to be realised.
