Partner Katja Wigham, in our Commercial Property team, highlights the key points of the recent Autumn Budget which will impact housing in the UK.
Philip Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequer, published the Autumn Budget on Wednesday 22 November 2017. This article will focus on the commitment to investing in housing in the UK, however it will not look at the changes to SDLT which you can find more information here.
The budget announced that the Government intends to raise housing supply to the highest level the UK has seen since 1970. As part of this commitment the Government proposes changes to the planning system which aims to boost available land for housing and the build out of residential developments. Two such changes include plans to increase housing density in urban areas by introducing permitted developments rights to allow commercial buildings to be demolished and replaced with housing and changing policy to make it easier to convert retail and employment land to housing (among other policy changes). Such changes are likely to only be implemented after consultation and therefore the details of how these policies will be implemented and the conditions to be attached are unknown.
However, it is recognised that in order for more housing to be built the private sector and local authorities require investment and support. To this end, Homes England will be granted £1.1 billion for a new “Land Assembly Fund” which will aim to assist private developers to undertake new residential development and regenerate existing developments.
The Housing Infrastructure Fund will also see an injection of cash – an additional £2.7billion (bringing the total investment in this fund to £5billion). This fund was launched in June earlier this year and aims to help to deliver up to 100,000 new homes in England.
The announcements in the Budget provide a total boost of £15.3billion (ignoring the investment in the Construction Sector) to support house building in the UK. The Government states that this brings total support of at least £44billion over the next five years. The additional funding will of course be good news for developers and local authorities and it is hoped that such measures will indeed let the Government meet its commitment to build 300,000 new homes per year by the end of this Parliament.
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This article is intended for the use of clients and other interested parties. The information contained in it is believed to be correct at the date of publication, but it is necessarily of a brief and general nature and should not be relied upon as a substitute for specific professional advice.
