The CEO of Keepmoat Homes, Peter Hindley has responded to the speech delivered by Prime Minister Theresa May at the Conservative party Conference in Manchester.The speech was delivered on the 4th October and has received a lot of coverage, not always for what the Prime Minister was saying.
Peter has commented on the speech saying that Theresa May has delivered a good conference for those who are looking at and working towards meeting the housing need in the UK. There is a UK wide housing deficit and it has been stated by the Prime Minister that more affordable homes need to be built to get younger people onto the housing market and to combat the housing deficit. The lack of housing available has driven up the price, which means that first time buyers and the younger generation are struggling to get a foothold on the housing ladder.
The Keepmoat Homes CEO has said that Local authorities may be a good source for the provision of additional homes. Today, homes available through the local authorities can be from a range of different tenures, such as social, affordable rent, private rent, private sale and shared ownership. With a wider range of homes available it means that a wider range of need can be met. Therefore developments taking place that have profitable tenures that could be used to subsidise the affordable ones are recommended for developments going forward and could lead to public investment into housing reaching that bit further.
Local authorities also have the best access to brownfield sites, that can be developed as another source of housing. Brownfield sites also tend to be in good urban and suburban locations, offering less controversy that developments on other sites and sometimes offering quicker development times once the costs of clearing the land are taken care of.
It is also great to see confidence in the Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme, with another £10 billion promised to support the scheme.
