Release the grip of big builders, Academy of Urbanism says
Small housebuilders should be given greater access to finance in an attempt to tackle the housing crisis, ministers have been told.
In a report entitled Better Housing for the 21st Century, the Academy of Urbanism (AOU) said the government needed to “prise open the grip of the UK’s big housebuilders” by enabling smaller builders to access funding more easily.
“These volume builders deliver the majority of new housing, but three-quarters of it has been labelled ‘mediocre or worse’ in a recent audit by University College London,” it added.
The report went on: “Funding for small development and small building companies to encourage alternative development mechanisms should be de-risked so they do not have to put their collateral at risk.
“Risk management has led to the weakening of design and the values that are gained by good design, rather than residual land value and viability testing.”
The AOU report also recommended changes to land taxation and regulation to allow the new development corporations to buy land at its current value, rather than its value once planning permission is granted.
It also argued for an independent commission to look at the planning system “to unlock its potential through radical action”.
David Rudlin, the AOU’s chair, said successive governments had put off making difficult decisions.
“By backing access to finance for small builders, standards and choice for the consumer will grow. Investment should also be pledged towards new technologies which can utilise off-site building techniques.”
Rudlin said there was also a much greater role for custom-build in which buyers would be able to specify housing “as they do a new car”.
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