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Housing

David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, said: 鈥淲e welcome the Chancellor鈥檚 focus on housing and the announcement of a new garden city, but we think the Budget is a missed opportunity. Measures like Help to Buy are likely to stimulate demand for housing but the Budget does not go far enough to boost the supply of homes needed to meet that demand.

鈥淭he Chancellor says the 23% increase in house building is not enough and we agree with him. An effective release of public land for house building, increasing the borrowing capacity of housing associations and extending Government guarantees to back financing for new development, would all have made a significant and immediate boost to the supply of affordable homes.

鈥淲e welcome the announcement of the new garden city in Ebbsfleet, but it will only make a difference if it is the first of many. The new homes in Ebbsfleet must not merely replace homes that would have been built elsewhere.鈥�

Grainia Long, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing, said: 鈥淔ollowing the credit crunch small builders have found it more difficult to access finance, so the government鈥檚 announcement of 拢500m to help them get building is welcome.

鈥淗owever, we are disappointed that the Chancellor did not choose to use the tax system to incentivise standards in the market rented sector.  This sector is the fastest growing of all tenures it is vital that we take steps to ensure more consistent standards. 

鈥淔or many people living in the market rented sector quality and standards are too often left too chance.  Changing the tax system would reward landlords for doing the right thing, whilst not costing the government any additional money.鈥�

Simon, Rubinsohn, RICS chief economist, said: 鈥淎 tight budget with little room for manoeuvre. Yet again, the Chancellor has failed to overhaul the stamp duty system, with wages well below inflation and rents rising rapidly for years, many have been struggling to save for a deposit, let alone meet a huge tax bill. Helping more buyers to enter at the lower end of the market would have resulted in more movement and transactions, freeing up stagnant property chains and bringing badly-needed housing onto the market.

鈥淲hile plans for regeneration and new homes in Barking, Brent Cross and the new garden 鈥榗ity鈥� at Ebbsfleet - which is really just a garden village - will contribute a little housing in the South East. These numbers are a drop in the ocean and do nothing to help others in the UK. More importantly, they don鈥檛 deliver the mix of homes we need across society, from the private rented sector to affordable and social housing.

鈥淩ICS has long called for an investors鈥� prospectus for garden cities, which we welcome today. But we need a more ambitious approach than 15,000 homes at a time. To provide investors communities and developers with greater confidence, what we need is a proper political vision for garden cities and the wider economy.

鈥淢eanwhile, the much trailed extension of Help to Buy to 2020 is not a game changer. While it provides certainty and clarity to the market, creating another 120,000 new build properties is still a modest target. We need over 230,000 just to meet current demand. Much more needs to be done.鈥�

Stuart Robinson, executive director and chariman of UK planning at CBRE, said: 鈥淕arden cities were a step forward in their time but what is required currently is a model very different to what we saw at Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City. And although the Mayor is gallantly using innovative ideas to procure homes at a faster rate, the scale of the housing crisis in London will need solutions which address the heart of the undersupply in problems in the Capital.鈥�

Adam Lawrence, chief executive of developer London Square, said: 鈥淗ousing supply is like a car stuck in the snow. It needs a push and a pull to get it moving. We need the Government to give the supply of land a push and that means tax incentives for private landowners to sell their sites. Greater supply of sites will enable developers to provide the pull to deliver more homes.鈥�

Dr Nelson Ogunshakin OBE, chief executive of the ACE said: 鈥淎ny rise in new builds is welcome, however our research has shown this is simply not enough. By 2020 we still expect a 鈥楬ousing Gap鈥� of around 800,000 homes, a city twice the size of Birmingham.

鈥淭he government must consider more supply-side remedies, such as the Land Optimisation Value Extraction (L.O.V.E.) model ACE proposed in its housing papers. Only a radical change of approach will see delivery of houses in the numbers we need, and ensure the dream of owning a home is still accessible to all.鈥�

David Sheridan, chief executive of Keepmoat, said: 鈥淭he extension of Help to Buy will give the house building industry more confidence to plan ahead for the next six years so we can now begin to think about hiring more staff to build more homes and investing in apprentices. As a result, we are looking to increase our number of apprentices by 50%, by employing at least another 100 apprentices over the next 12 months.鈥�

Chris Temple, PwC UK engineering & construction UK lead, said: 鈥淗ouse building needs a significant push, so it is good to see the 拢500 million investment into small house building firms, which has obvious employment connotations too. However, space is at a premium, especially in London and the south-east, where the Chancellor identified a specific need for new housing. To really kick-start the industry, I would like to see greater incentives for public and private landowners to sell sites to developers.

Ben De Waal, head of residential at Aecom, said: 鈥淭he 拢500m for Builders finance fund for SME housing developers  should go some way to supporting a more diversified list of housing suppliers.

鈥淭he proposals for a tax charge on properties left empty will mean that overseas investors will be encouraged to rent the properties rather than just leave empty. We have to wait until Autumn 2014 for the Government to announce their housing growth ambitions.鈥�

James Pargeter, head of residential projects at Deloitte Real Estate, said: 鈥淭he release of two major housing announcements by the Government over the weekend indicates the major political significance of housing as a concern for the electorate. At the 2010 general election, housing was the 18th most important issue for voters. Current polls indicate that this has risen to fourth.

鈥淕overnments are reliant on others to deliver housing to support their aspirations. Private sector house builders and developers are undoubtedly assisted by 鈥楬elp to Buy鈥�, but there was very little today to show any additional support for the affordable housing and private rented sectors which are also essential parts of the housing spectrum.鈥�

Anna Scott-Marshall, head of external affairs at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) said: 鈥淲e welcome the Government鈥檚 announcement to take forward our policy on allocating land for self and custom build homes through the Right to Build programme and the promise that the government will finally publish its long promised prospectus on garden cities.

鈥淗owever, changes to Help to Buy to deliver 120,000 homes by 2020 and the introduction of the Builders鈥� Finance Fund will fall short of providing the boost to housing supply we desperately need. The Government needs to stop tinkering around the edges of the housing crisis and start taking serious steps towards solving it.鈥�

A spokesperson for the CBI said: 鈥淗ousebuilders of all sizes, in all regions, will welcome the Chancellor鈥檚 move. Extending Help to Buy will offer greater certainty to housebuilders looking to deliver new homes, while the new loan scheme for smaller firms will support new entrants into the market.鈥�

David Mann, executive partner at TFT, said: 鈥淭he measures announced in today鈥檚 budget, such as the extension of help-to-buy, only focus on increasing demand for new homes. However, severe supply constraints are limiting the construction industry鈥檚 capacity. The gap between rising demand and the lack of supply of new homes to fill it will add to further house price increases, particularly in London and the South East.

鈥淪upply constraints arise from the fall out of the downturn. There is a skills shortage owing to retrenched skilled workers being permanently lost to the sector, who have not yet been replaced. This is combined with a backlog of planning applications arising from slimmed down local authority planning departments. Added to this are shortages and long delivery lead times of materials such as bricks and tiles as manufacturers permanently closed or mothballed plants across Europe and the UK. The increased demand and lack of supply of these basic building materials is pushing the cost of construction upwards too.鈥�

Infrastructure

Steve Bromhead, head of UK infrastructure, industry and utilities at EC Harris, said: 鈥淭oday鈥檚 Budget was, as feared, a damp squib.  It鈥檚 been clear for some time that we need to turn the National Infrastructure Plan into a long term integrated plan. What is becoming clearer is the need to turn this plan into action and to integrate infrastructure policy. We must get these initiatives off the ground and ensure the investment, regulation and other enablers are put in place by the government to allow this.

鈥淚n response to flooding investment, whilst that investment is welcome, it only deals with short-term recovery, and we are surprised that there has been no reference to long-term flood prevention.鈥�

David Tonkin, Atkins鈥� chief executive for UK and Europe, said: 鈥淭he budget announcements around new housing and infrastructure projects such as the new garden city at Ebbsfleet, continued support of HS2 and the 拢270 million guarantee for Mersey Gateway bridge, are not only great examples of investments which will improve people鈥檚 lives now and in the future, they send a clear message to investors that the UK is a great place to invest and do business. It is vital that the funding is released quickly and that planning processes do not unnecessarily slow down the delivery of these projects, so the economic and social benefits they will bring can be realised as soon as possible.鈥�

Andrew Stevenson, head of infrastructure at Aecom鈥檚 buildings and places division, said: 鈥淐ommitment to expenditure in highways repairs and flood defence was noted at 拢340m collectively. HS2 was mentioned in passing with the appetite to press further north in the first phase to Crewe 鈥� a project that鈥檚 now almost 鈥榖usiness as usual鈥� rather than on the edge of demise, a show of confidence perhaps? The Mersey Bridge guarantee and commitment to Wales took the infrastructure story beyond London and the South East.

鈥淭he improved ISA allowance will mean potentially more investment in equities and funds in the infrastructure space from which funds can plough back and invest in the UK鈥檚 continuing infrastructure spending programme.鈥�

Andy Wheeler, head of energy and utilities at Aecom, said: 鈥溌�140m to repair flood defences is good, but that will only put us back to where we were before the floods. We need new measures to protect life and property when it rains.鈥�

Nick Baveystock, Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) director general said: 鈥淭he additional 拢140m funding for flood defences repairs and 拢200m for road damage is welcome and signals a commitment to better protecting homes and businesses from flooding and building resilience into our transport networks. We are disappointed however that Government missed the opportunity to provide the longer term certainty needed to improve our flood resilience by committing to an investment programme for flood risk management which protects funding beyond the current 5 year cycle. It is vital that Government now works closely with Local Lead Flood Authorities to target flood spending where it is needed most - and we urge government to develop its long term plans swiftly.鈥�

WSP鈥檚 head of water at Ola Holmstrom said: 鈥淎 much more substantial investment will be required to facilitate the fundamental societal change needed to meet the threat of a more violent weather pattern in future, fuelled by climate change. We need funds to bolster and diversify the way we deal with the threats of flooding, and we need long term strategic vision for how to do this coupled with the best of Britain innovation to come up with technical solutions instead of expecting old cures to fix new problems.

鈥淣ot least we need funding to allow for the consequences of the very hard land sacrifice choices we will have to make to accommodate increasing flood flows in the future.鈥�

Duncan Symonds, head of infrastructure at WSP said:

鈥淓very Budget and Autumn Statement we get some sort of appendix update about the national infrastructure plan and it strikes me that it would be more informative to know which individual government departments are pulling their weight and which are delaying the delivery of important projects. I suspect the name and shame approach would have more impact in unlocking stalled projects than another updated list of projects and finance initiatives, and of course coming up to election Government performance will be paramount. However the success of such a reporting exercise would depend on there being a consequence for those scoring poorly.

鈥淭he 拢200m for potholes is a knee jerk reaction, and while welcome because there are urgent repairs needed due to the flooding, if there was better long-term funding we could potentially avoid the problem in the first place. The road repairs backlog already stands at 拢10.5billion and to avoid it getting worse local authorities need funding to undertake regular resurfacing which will save money in the long-run.鈥�

Ian Andrews, infrastructure sector co-leader at Linklaters, said: 鈥淭he infrastructure projects announced by the Chancellor are a welcome step forward, but they only scratch the surface of the large sum of private international investment available for European infrastructure.

鈥淲hilst there is significant private finance available for European infrastructure investment, as much as US$1tn over the next 10 years according to our research, ensuring these funds are deployed in the UK is dependent on the Government identifying a strong pipeline of infrastructure projects, such as those projects announced by the Chancellor, and maintaining a stable regulatory platform.鈥�

A CECA spokesperson said: 鈥淐ECA welcomes any new investment in the infrastructure sector, as it will drive growth to the benefit of the wider economy. The benefits of highways maintenance and other infrastructure investment are clear.

鈥淥ur research shows that infrastructure investment boosts GDP by 拢1.30 per every 拢1 invested, and that for every 1,000 jobs that are created in infrastructure construction, employment as a whole rises by more than 3,000 jobs.鈥�

Contractors

Stephen Ratcliffe, director of the UK Contractors Group, said: 鈥淭he good news is that better than expected economic recovery will start to drive private sector investment in infrastructure.  Increases in annual investment allowances will also help.  A plan on public sector infrastructure investment for the remainder of the decade will be announced in the Autumn.

鈥淭ax incentives to encourage our supply chain to take on more apprentices will support the work UKCG is doing to ensure the industry has a well trained workforce. 

鈥淭here will be disappointment in the industry that measures to combat bogus self employment will come into effect on 5 April.  UKCG supported the principle but had asked its introduction was delayed so that costs did not rise on contracts where the price was already fixed.   There will also be some frustration that there were no 鈥渃arrots鈥� to stimulate greener construction.鈥�

Sustainability

John Alker, director of policy and communications at the the UK Green 好色先生TV Council, said: Any real hope that the Chancellor is committed to the green agenda faded long ago but what remains deeply disappointing is that he doesn鈥檛 recognise a growth opportunity when he sees one. There continues to be a complete blind spot on the role that energy efficiency has to play in reducing consumer bills over the long-term, and generating home-grown jobs.

鈥淎 one-off 拢15 cut to household bills will be quickly forgotten - what is needed is long-term incentives to reduce the demand for energy in the first place.

鈥淗oped for clarity on zero carbon homes and non-domestic buildings was also conspicuous by its absence. With energy bills 拢800 less than the average home, you would have thought Government would want to shout about this policy from the roof-tops. Sadly, the future of Allowable Solutions still remains unclear.鈥�

WSP鈥檚 UK head of environment Mark Hurley said: 鈥淭he Chancellor is right to focus on energy costs but there are bigger savings to be made than capping the carbon floor price. Government forecasts that home energy bills will be 拢310 higher in real terms by 2018/19, largely driven by higher oil prices. Capping the carbon floor price will save families 拢15 a year, but supporting the simplest of energy efficiency measures, such as heating controls, insulation and draught proofing will cut energy use by 10% and save 拢150 a year- more than ten times the amount from the carbon floor price saving.鈥�

SMEs

Julia Evans, chief executive of the National Federation of Builders, said: 鈥淭he NFB welcomes recognition of the contribution of smaller builders with the creation of the 拢500 million Builders Finance Fund.

However, it was disappointing not to hear any announcements on boosting retrofit measures, which would have helped people to improve their homes and bring down energy bills. The Chancellor should not only fix the roof while sun is shining but should have made sure it is insulated by providing additional support through a VAT cut on retrofit measures from 20% to 5%.鈥�

Brian Berry, chief executive of the Federation for Master Builders, said: 鈥�The chancellor鈥檚 Budget announcement of a 拢500m Builders Finance Fund for small house builders will provide a major boost for housing supply.

鈥淯nfortunately today鈥檚 Budget overlooks the need to make our existing homes an infrastructure investment priority. A reduction in VAT to 5% on housing renovation and repair is the simplest and most effective way to empower home owners to refurbish their properties to make them more energy efficient and cheaper to run. This cut in VAT would provide a 拢15bn economic stimulus over five years and up to 95,000 jobs which re much needed while our economy is still in recovery.鈥�

Skills

Richard Steer, chairman of Gleed Worldwide, said: 鈥�I am most pleased to see the 拢85m set aside per annum for the next two years to support the apprenticeship grants for employers and we must make sure government earmarks this money for our sector.

鈥淲e must get firms to invest in training again to hire, train and retain our craftspeople who will be the key to us controlling wage inflation as we go forward and manage the recovery phase of the economy. There is a stimulant for youth employment which should encourage apprenticeship schemes.鈥�