Report casts serious doubts on housing target for 2016

The Construction Products Association has cast serious doubts on the Government’s target to see 240 000 new homes a year built to zero-carbon standards by 2016 in a new report. The report by the Wood Holmes Group identifies the difficulties of sufficient land being released to meet this number of housing starts as the main problem that the industry will face. It concludes, ‘The overall vision of housebuilding appears to be one of stability in terms of number of houses built due to persistent land-supply restrictions derived from the planning system and the inertia of the housebuilding industry.’ Michael Ankers, chief executive of the CPA, is concerned that a shortfall in the target will stifle the investment needed to meet the environmental challenge. ‘What makes this an even bigger challenge is the high environmental standards that we are being asked to build these new homes to in the future. The construction-products industry has the ability to deliver the products need for these homes, but will only make the necessary investment if it is confident there is a realistic prospect of the targets being met. Government needs to take urgent steps to give us that confidence.’