Strategic housing investment is another positive step

James Brokenshire has announced £250 million for housing deals, which includes £157 million for infrastructure funding for roads and green spaces.

The money will help deliver a range of projects across the UK, including 10,000 homes on 7 Ministry of Defence sites and more than 1,500 homes at the Queen Elizabeth II Olympic Park.

The Government expects that the infrastructure investment, use of public land and targeted loans will help them build almost 25,000 more homes than the 222,000 that were built in 2017/2018.

The National Federation of Builders (NFB) commends the Government on investing directly in land, infrastructure and housing to unlock homes, but warns that many of the sites will remain locked unless it takes more serious steps toward planning reform.

Many of the sites will require further strong leadership from Homes England, who have been more easily circumventing the planning and financial barriers that non-government partnered developers experience.

Richard Beresford, chief executive of the NFB, said: “We need to build 100,000 more homes every year and this means better road networks and more recreational spaces. This direct and strategic housing investment is very welcome.

Rico Wojtulewicz, head of housing and planning policy at the House Builders Association, said: “At the heart of the broken housing market is the broken planning process. The Government must fix the barriers non-government partners face because we cannot fix the housing crisis with big and public sector builders getting the easier ride. Planning reform has to benefit the whole industry.

National Federation of Builders

The National Federation of Builders is a United Kingdom trade association representing the interests of small and medium-sized building contractors in England and Wales.

You May Also Enjoy

Breaking News

Planning reform alone will not fix the UK’s housing crisis

Propertymark has published a new position paper, Meeting UK house demand, moving beyond the planning system, warning that focusing solely on reforming the planning system will not deliver the number of homes the UK urgently needs. While planning reform is frequently cited as the primary solution to the housing shortage, Propertymark’s analysis shows that changes…
Read More
Breaking News

One in three mortgage hunting FTBs has at least 25% deposit

While higher loan-to-value (LTV) mortgages dominate first-time buyer demand a significant minority are seeking higher deposit deals, fresh data from Moneyfactscompare.co.uk can reveal. Of those looking for fixed term deals on moneyfactscompare.co.uk: Almost one in three (30%) first-time buyers are opting for 90% LTV mortgages, and a further 12% are looking at 95% LTV options. This…
Read More
how to present your property for sale
Breaking News

Nationwide House Price Index for January 2026 – Industry Reaction

Nationwide House Price Index for January 2026. The latest index shows that: House prices increased by 0.3% between December 2025 and January 2026. This reversed the -0.4% monthly decline seen between November and December of last year. Annual growth sat at 1% in January 2026, with this annual rate of growth increasing from 0.6% in…
Read More
Breaking News

House price growth edges higher in January

Slight rise in annual house price growth to 1.0% House prices were up 0.3% month on month Continued improvement in affordability helped drive first-time buyer activity in 2025 Headlines Jan-26 Dec-25 Monthly Index* 544.9 543.4 Monthly Change* 0.3% -0.4% Annual Change 1.0% 0.6% Average Price (not seasonally adjusted) £270,873 £271,068 * Seasonally adjusted figure (note…
Read More
Breaking News

Housebuilding sector shows early signs of recovery

The latest Barclays Business Prosperity Index report1 reveals that despite affordability pressures, regulatory challenges and financial caution, four in five businesses (83 per cent) operating in housebuilding and its supply chains remain confident about their outlook for the year ahead. Barclays’ anonymised client data from around 70,000 UK businesses, combined with research from 500 industry…
Read More
Rightmove logo
Breaking News

Rightmove launches major updates to its agent qualification CELA

Rightmove’s Level 3 Certificate for Estate and Letting Agents (CELA) will include a new module on Renters’ Rights from April, helping agents to get Renters’ Rights ready before May The Level 3 Certificate for Estate and Letting Agents is included as standard within all Rightmove memberships, with only a fee to the exam board to…
Read More