Fresh Sources of Private Finance Needed to Drive Housebuilding

With the latest projections showing only 90,000 private sector homes will be completed in 2009, Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) Chief Sir Bob Kerslake told housing delegates yesterday that new models of funding and construction were needed in order to revive the government's house building plans.

Speaking at the Chartered Institute of Housing's (CIH) annual conference and exhibition in Harrogate, Sir Bob Kerslake announced he was setting up a new Housing Finance Group to help find new sources of private sector funding and said that "more needs to be done on private housebuilding".


Sir Bob said that new money in the Budget was already having an impact on kick starting affordable housing programmes and said that he was "confident that there would be an appetite amongst local authorities" to deliver homes.

Elaine Elkington, Strategic Director of Housing and Constituencies at Birmingham City Council, told delegates that the authority wants to kick start building using its own land and prudential borrowing through its new Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust, and deliver 50,000 new homes by 2026. Ms Elkington said: "Our ambition is to be one of the first local authorities in the country to sign a three-year local investment plan with the HCA…to put delivery at the heart of things."

Sarah Webb, CIH Chief Executive, said: "We are currently only building one new home for every two new households in England, and that needs to change. We must work together as a sector to help private sector house builders, housing associations and local authorities to access funding and kick start delivery."

(CD/BMcc)