Housing: Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer

Craig Whittaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what support he has provided to local authorities and the construction industry to encourage the promotion of self-build schemes for constructing new homes.

Gavin Barwell:We have a strong commitment to supporting and encouraging the growth of self- and custom build homes. The Government has implemented new legislation requiring most local planning authorities to hold and have regard to registers for those seeking to build their own home in a local authority area. Subject to Parliamentary processes, in the Autumn we will also introduce secondary legislation flowing from the Housing and Planning Act 2016 which will require local planning authorities to find and give permission to suitable land reflecting the demand demonstrated by the registers. We have made available £32 million in new burdens funding over the Spending Review period in order to support local planning authorities in meeting these new requirements. In the 2015 Spending Review, the Government also announced a £3 billion loan fund of which £1 billion is specifically earmarked for short term loans to support small and medium builders and custom build projects and is designed to provide further support for the legislation that we have introduced.

Government To Combine Building Funds

The government is preparing to launch a £3bn loan fund for housebuilding which will roll up existing schemes into a single pot. The government is close to announcing its Home Building Fund, which was trailed in the Queen’s Speech. House builders have been briefed in recent weeks by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) that existing funds will be combined to form one pot. An announcement will take place after the 23 June EU referendum, due to pre-vote ‘purdah’ rules limiting government announcements. The government will remove many of the restrictions and limitations on who can bid and what sort of scheme is eligible for funding.  Read more on Inside Housing.