The British Property Foundation (BPF) and Federation of Master Builders (FMB) have responded to announcements in the Queens speech.

The BPF has welcomed the announcement of the Housing Bill, highlighting the Bill's stipulations to:

• Increase the supply of new Starter Homes to 200,000 by 2020.

• Introduce a statutory register for brownfield land, to help achieve the target of getting Local Development Orders in place on 90% of suitable brownfield sites by 2020. 

Melanie Leech, Chief Executive of the BPF said: "The government has a huge task on its hands if it is to deliver enough new homes to house future generations, and must focus on supply-side solutions to meet demand.

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"The Starter Homes initiative holds potential, but we have several questions around the realities of delivery and whether there will be sufficient infrastructure provision on the allocated sites."

Ms Leech added that the focus on brownfield land is positive.

However she said the BPF has doubts about how much suitable land will come to market.

She said: "Local Development Orders are not the silver bullet and experience shows that they are costly for local authorities to produce."

The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) also commented on the Bill's announcement.

The FMB's Head of External Affairs, Sarah McMonagle, said the 200,000 Starter Homes the Government plans to develop by 2020 will not "get off the ground" unless the construction skills crisis is solved.

She said: "Our latest research shows that 50% of small local builders are struggling to hire bricklayers and this is a stark reminder of how the Government’s ambitions to build more new homes could be scuppered by a lack of skilled workers."

(LM)