Housing: Construction

(asked on 2nd December 2016) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the Office for Budget Responsibility comments on page 51 of their report <i>Economic and fiscal outlook,</i> published on 23 November, regarding housebuilding and residential investment.


This question was answered on 19th December 2016

The Autumn Statement announced an expansion of the Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme (SOAHP) 2016-21, allocating an additional £1.4 billion to the programme for a further 40,000 housing starts by 2021. We remain committed to Shared Ownership which has an important role to play, but it is important that government also enables providers to deliver a variety of tenures that support a wide range of people in different circumstances.

Page 51 of the OBR's "Economic and fiscal outlook" refers to its assessment of the impact of this change. The Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) has taken one particular approach to its forecasting model, but would themselves acknowledge the uncertainty around their forecast. It will review its forecast as new data becomes available.

Housing associations themselves are saying that the tenure flexibility and funding will help them build more and the National Housing Federation has said it "will give housing associations the freedom and confidence to build even more affordable homes, more quickly, across the country''.

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