Housebuilders have welcomed plans by the UK Government to invest an additional £2 billion in the UK's housing supply.

Speaking at the Conservative Party's conference today, 04 October, Prime Minister Theresa May pledged to invest a further £2bn to build more council and social housing across the country.

"I can announce that we will invest an additional £2 billion in affordable housing – taking the Government's total affordable housing budget to almost £9 billion," she said.

"We will encourage councils as well as housing associations to bid for this money and provide certainty over future rent levels. And in those parts of the country where the need is greatest, allow homes to be built for social rent, well below market level."

Chief Executive of Trafford Housing Trust, Matthew Gardiner, said the announcement was a "welcome approach" to solving the country's housing crisis.

"For far too long the emphasis on homeownership has left the many families who cannot afford to own with only the expensive, insecure and poor quality offer of much of the private rented sector," he said.

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"Successive Governments have ignored the fact that a well-functioning housing market needs the underpinning of a modern and adequate social housing element. By bringing social housing to the centre of housing strategy, and by giving the tools that Local Authorities and Housing Associations need to work together in effective partnerships, the prospects for these families are significantly improved."

Austen Reid, Clarion Housing Group's Executive Director for Development, said the Group welcomed the announcement as well as further assurances on rent settlements.

"For years we have worked our balance sheets and driven efficiencies to continue to develop affordable housing, often through cross subsidy and competing against the commercial housebuilders for land," he said.

"We have also had to operate in an uncertain environment following the 2016 rent cuts. However, we have always maintained that to deliver the social and affordable housing the country truly needs requires Government intervention – so this increased focus is positive."

The Federation of Master Builders's Chief Executive, Brian Berry, said the PM "managed to take a braver and bolder stance on house building than any Prime Minister of recent years".

However, he warned there remain "some significant roadblocks" to the Prime Minister's vision.

"Following Brexit, the serious shortage of skilled labour the construction industry is already dealing with will be exacerbated if it becomes much more difficult for EU tradespeople, who have come to play a crucial part in plugging the industry's chronic skills gap, to move to and work in the UK," he said.

"Although the industry must seek to overcome this crisis by recruiting and training many more young people than we currently do, the Government must also be mindful and realistic about the continuing need there will be for skilled EU workers as it puts in place its post-Brexit immigration policy.

"Otherwise it will risk jeopardising the delivery of the bold new house building ambitions the Prime Minister outline today."

(LM)