The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Phillip Hammond, has unveiled a £15.3 billion financial support package for house building in the Autumn Budget.

Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, Chancellor Hammond said at least £44bn of capital funding, loans and guarantees will be committed over the next five years to help deliver 300,000 new homes per year by the mid-2020s.

Key highlights include;

• A £630 million small sites fund to unstick the delivery of 40,000 homes

• A further £2.7bn to more than double the Housing Infrastructure Fund

• £400 million for estate regeneration

• £ 1.1bn fund to unlock strategic sites, including new settlements and urban regeneration schemes

• A lifting of HRA caps for councils in high demand areas to get them building again.

• £8bn of new financial guarantees to support private housebuilding and the purpose-built private rented sector

• An additional £34m to develop construction skills across the country like bricklaying and plastering, while £30m will go towards digital courses using AI.

In addition, Mr Hammond pledged the delivery of five new garden towns "in areas of demand pressure", delivering up to one million homes by 2050.

Chancellor Hammond also outlined a number of planning reform measures to make best use of land, protect the green belt and building "high quality, high density homes in city centres and around transport hubs".

And as well as pledging to support young people by ensuring councils in high demand areas permit more homes for local first time buyers and affordable renters, Mr Hammond highlighted the "significant gap" between the number of planning permissions granted and the number of homes built.

-- Advertisement --

"In London alone, there are 270,000 residential planning permissions unbuilt," he said.

"We need to understand why. So I am establishing an urgent Review to look at the gap between planning permissions and housing starts. It will be chaired by my Right Honourable Friend for West Dorset. And will deliver an interim report in time for the Spring Statement next year."

Stamp duty for first time buyers has also been abolished on homes valued up to £300,000.

"To ensure that this relief also helps first time buyers in very high price areas like London, it will also be available on the first £300,000 of the purchase price of properties up to £500,000," Mr Hammond continued.

Funding has also been set aside to boost transport across England;

• £1.7bn will go towards improving transport in English cities

• An extra £337m will go towards a fleet of new trains on the Tyne & Wear Metro

• An extra £6m will go towards the Midlands Connect motorway and rail projects

Transport links along the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford corridor will be improved by;

• completing the rail link between Oxford and Bedford, and Aylesbury and Milton Keynes

• setting up a new East West Rail Company to speed up work on the rail link between Bedford and Cambridge

• £5m to help develop plans for Cambridge South Station

• building the Expressway road between Oxford and Cambridge

A £220m Clean Air Fund has also been established for local areas with the highest air pollution, while the government will also explore ways on reducing single-use plastics waste through the tax system and charges.

Elsewhere, £3.5bn will be invested in upgrading NHS buildings and improving care.

In response to the Government's housing plans, the British Property Federation's Director of Finance Policy, Ion Fletcher, said: "We welcome the commitment from the Chancellor today (22 November) to long-term solutions, and actions that seek to take that commitment forward.

"What excites us is the commitment to infrastructure, the opportunities that places like Oxford-MK-Cambridge will provide, and the more flexible use of government support through measures like guarantees, to support housing delivery.

"The new 'Homes England' will have a central role in increasing delivery and it is vital it gets the support of public and private sectors, if all our aspirations are to be met. We have promoted three year tenancies in the Build-to-Rent sector and will therefore be engaging positively in providing tenants with that choice via the promised consultation."

Brian Berry Chief Executive of the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), welcomed the Chancellor's commitment towards extra resourcing to training for construction skills.

"With Brexit round the corner the next few years will bring unprecedented challenges to the construction sector," he said.

"The Government will need to make sure that the sector continues to have access to skilled EU workers, but we are pleased that the Chancellor has today listened to the needs of SME builders."

(LM)