Pre-Budget Message to the Chancellor

As we approach what is probably the most speculated-over budget in modern UK history, a few final thoughts for the Chancellor from the UK’s housebuilding supply chain.

• Please avoid anything that makes the house-buying public nervous. Certainty is good, ambiguity bad. Yes, we know, there are lots of factors in the government’s ability to get housebuilding building again, but builders will only build if they can sell, and unless people feel safe in making buying decisions in a way they know is financially sustainable for them, they simply won’t. So please, let’s have clear decisions.
• When you’re finalising your numbers on increasing the tax and regulatory burden on SME’s remember this fact from Professor Noble Francis, Economics Director at the Construction Products Association: Over 10,000 construction companies have gone out of business in the last three years – and it’s still happening. So think about what those tax and NI rises might mean to a sector that is already up against it and cash constrained – making increased order volumes tricky to handle for some if the housebuilding market picks up as quickly as you think. Especially as that will come on top of the as-yet-unquantified costs of administering the new Employment Rights Bill.
• Get the support right. Make financial room to support the growth in vocational training and apprenticeships AND invest seriously in local planning teams to help speed up planning decisions.

There is one aspect of this week’s budget we are looking forward to – the end of the huge amount of wild speculation that has caused so much uncertainty, for businesses and individuals. Whether we like your first budget or not, we’ll all know what we’re facing and people will be able to make informed decisions again!

James Scott
Managing Director