The government’s flagship Starter Homes initiative launched yesterday (15 December) by the Prime Minister has been welcomed by the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), with a number of FMB housebuilders already pledging their support.
Brian Berry, FMB chief executive, said: “We back the principle of this scheme, which aims to enable more new homes to be brought forward and targeted at first time buyers, who are a crucial section of the market. The government’s recognition of the importance of boosting supply from smaller housebuilders has been underlined by recent announcements extending the Builders Finance Fund to smaller sites and setting a 10 unit threshold on affordable housing and tariff style planning obligations. It is crucial that the Starter Home initiative will also be open to firms and sites of any size.”
Mr Berry concluded: “It is now important that we make sure that the details of the scheme ensure that the central objective - to deliver 100,000 new homes for first time buyers at 80% of market value – is realisable in practice. That’s why the FMB and 15 leading member firms have pledged to work with the government on the development of the Starter Homes scheme.”
