The Construction Products Association (CPA) has welcomed John Prescott’s bold new plan to help more people onto the property ownership ladder.
The deputy prime minister’s Five Year Plan, Sustainable Communities: Homes for All, seeks to help 80,000 more people into home ownership by 2010 and build an extra 10,000 social homes a year by 2008. It also includes a competition for builders to construct a home for £60,000.
CPA economics director Allan Wilen said the plan underlines the urgent need for the government to press on with planning reforms identified in the Kate Barker Report and increase new housing supply to bring a long-term improvement in affordability.
He said the government’s plan to release redundant NHS sites would help raise overall housing supply, while the contest to build 1,000 new homes for £60,000 each by 2007 could provide a useful showcase for innovative construction products and the skills of the wider building industry.
But Mr Wilen said reform of the planning system was urgently needed to free up the supply of housing land
He added: “It has been the inability of the planning system to provide sufficient development land to meet the growth in household numbers that has been the key factor behind the lack of affordable private sector housing.”
Mr Prescott calls his Five Year Plan the “most comprehensive policy ever for delivering sustainable homeownership”.
