Industry says 200k aim for new builds will be tough to meet

May 22, 2015 by Brendan O'Neill

House building

The largest housebuilder in the UK, Barratt Homes, has said that builders will struggle with meeting the 200,000 new home target set by the government.

Burton-on-Trent recently hosted the annual conference for conveyancing service provider myhomemove, where Adrian MacDiarmid announced that builders currently face too many obstacles and restrictions to make the target a reality.

Barratt reported that it is currently looking at completing around 16,000 new properties, which makes it the biggest UK building company. Persimmon follows closely in second place, and is reportedly on track to build near to 14,000 new homes.

MacDiarmid commented:

“Looking at these numbers alone it’s a struggle to see how those figures for the whole of the market will get us even close to the 200,000 mark.”

He went on to request that the government make land that is publicly owned accessible at a faster rate, as the lack of available land was one of the biggest challenges faced.

Myhomemove’s retail sales director, Stephen Hayter, commented:

“The last time we saw 200,000 homes build in this country was in 1968/9.”

He added that for politicians to casually claim that this was an ongoing annual ambition was fairly unbelievable.

Working as a mortgage professional, you will meet with the people hoping to purchase one of these new properties. Having completed your CeMAP training and obtained a pass grade in the final exam, you will be best placed to offer the advice and guidance they need.