Spiders and Stamps

What’s this little chap got to do with helping the government meet its housebuilding targets?

Houses are getting built – across the country, sites are back at work, and new developments continue to break ground, albeit not at the pace the government needs to meet its mountainous targets. Here at Scotts, trusses, joists and panels continue to leave the factory gates in Northamptonshire and Worcestershire as call-offs rise.

Many challenges are holding back housebuilders’ plans to really ramp up build programmes, certainly to the level Angela Raynor insists we can achieve, including economic uncertainty in the run up to the beginning of April’s implementation of a whole raft of tax rises and threshold changes. Frankly no-one yet knows the scale of the impact these will have, but no-one’s talking about how easy it will all be for businesses or individuals to absorb!

Here’s just a few:

Consumer confidence:

Consumer confidence is almost 40 points lower than 6 months ago (source British Retail Consortium), amid worries about higher energy prices, rising inflation (back to 3% in January) and job losses expected to be caused by employer National Insurance contributions.

Stamp Duty Thresholds:

The reduction of the nil-rate stamp duty threshold back to £125k (from £250k) – for first time buyers it drops to £300k from £425k, and the reduced stamp duty rates available through First Time Buyers Relief will only be available on transactions up to £500k instead of £625k.

Affordability:

Mortgage interest rates are showing no sign of significant long term reductions, with the average 2 year fix loan at nearly 4.9% (source: Rightmove)

Planning:

80% of Council planning departments are still operating below capacity. (Source HBF)

Skilled Trades Shortage:

28% of SME builders report difficulties recruiting general on-site trades (Source CPA)

Spiders:

And our eight-legged friend? The distinguished jumping spider, whose protected presence on a large site in Ebbsfleet was enough to stop a proposed development of 1300 new homes.

Interesting times!

James Scott
MD