Baseley highlighted the Prime Minister Theresa May’s willingness to stake her legacy on fixing the housing market, as stated in her conference speech yesterday.
“If you thought the heat on the industry was hot, it’s going to get even hotter,” he said.
Baseley also talked through the myriad challenges that the industry faces, including quality and leasehold issues, skills and the decline of SME housebuilders. “If we could get back to 2007 levels of SME numbers, that would produce 25,000 more homes,” he said.
He also defended the Help to Buy scheme, to which the government has pledged an extra £10 billion. “I firmly believe it has done exactly what it set out to achieve,” he said, pointing out that the scheme was launched as a result of lenders being required by regulation to insist on deposits for homes of 20%.
Also speaking at the conference, Nick Walkley, ceo of the Homes and Communities Agency, outlined the key roles of the new Homes England which will launch at the end of this month.
“These are opportune but challenging times,” Walkley said. “It’s about identifying where the opportunities are, flexing the tools we have and making the case for new tools.
“Creating Homes England gives us a chance to review our relationships to tackle the broken housing market.”
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