Home Builders Federation Warns Of 'House Building Ice Age'

The Home Builders Federation (HBF) has warned the government that it must press on with its planning reforms, or risk a “house building ice age”. HBF executive chairman Stewart Baseley said the “complete and utter nonsense” of the anti-development lobby must be dismissed or a generation of people will be unable to access the housing market. Lobbyists and environmental charities have called for the final version of the National Planning and Policy Framework (NPPF) to exclude a presumption in favour of sustainable development, saying it should be delayed until local authorities have suitable housing plans in place. In a speech to the Housing Market Intelligence conference, Baseley pointed out that councils have had since 2004 to ready their plans, yet under a third have done so. Read more on the Building website.