Latest news with #BuildingSafetyLevy
Scotsman
2 days ago
- Business
- Scotsman
Number of Scottish SME home builders falls to lowest level in 20 years as Scotland remains in housing emergency
New report highlights red tape and rising costs as key issues Sign up to our Scotsman Money newsletter, covering all you need to know to help manage your money. Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... As Scotland remains in a state of housing emergency, a new report published today shows the number of small and medium size (SME) home builders has fallen to its lowest level in 20 years. Red tape and rising costs are highlighted as key issues, with nearly 9 in 10 survey respondents saying government policies are making it harder for them to build. These latest insights are provided by SME home builder members of sector body Homes for Scotland (HFS) who, combined, built more than 2,500 homes across all tenures in 2024, including 1,075 for social rent. This represents 12.6% of the 19,797 homes delivered in Scotland last year. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Respondents claim that new regulations brought in since 2021 are responsible for in excess of £20,000 of additional costs on developing every new home, increasing affordability pressures even further. New report highlights red tape and rising costs as key issues Planning holdups are also continuing to be problematic - with 96% of SME home builders saying that slow planning decisions are blocking progress and stopping much-needed new homes from being delivered. Sector leaders are now demanding action if the Scottish Government is serious about combatting the housing emergency. Fionna Kell, HFS Director of Policy, said: 'Our small and medium home builders are facing a barrage of costs and delays that makeit increasingly harder for them to deliver the range of homes that Scotland needs and to grow their businesses sustainably. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'Without a thriving SME home building sector, many sites in rural and town centre locations, or those on smaller or tricker pieces of brownfield land which require additional remediation, would just never be built. With national planning policy prioritising the development of brownfield sites in Scotland we need to see Government-backed funding solutions to increase the development of private and affordable homes by SMEs who face disproportionate infrastructure costs.' HFS is recommending an overhaul of government regulation to reduce cost and complexity to make it easier for smaller businesses to build. Specifically, it is asking that SMEs will not be subject to the Building Safety Levy, a new tax proposed by the Scottish Government on new homes. It also says that planning must be streamlined, reflecting the recent reforms proposed by the UK Government to boost housing delivery in England. Family-owned, Fife-based home builder Campion Homes says that it is vital that smaller builders get support. Joint Managing Director Susan Jackson said: 'Builders like us can deliver projects in our local communities providing training and jobs whilst also supporting and boosting the local economy. We also provide diversity in the market offering more house types, layouts and price points that are more responsive to customer needs.' A lack of construction skills is also causing a headache for home builders. 88% of SMEs are concerned about workforce capacity, putting even more pressure on the housing pipeline in coming years. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Fionna added: 'Our members are committed to growing the sector and offering the wide array of socio-economic benefits SMEs bring to local communities. However, they require bold interventionist support, delivered at pace from both national and local government if we are to fully realise this potential. The report also highlights the important role that utility providers have to play in delivering new housing, particularly in relation to wastewater, sewage and water supply connections. HFS also says that SMEs struggle to access the finance and funding they need to deliver projects. They insist that government funding schemes, like the Housing Infrastructure Fund, must be adapted to make it easier for smaller home builders to access. According to the report, SME home builders were responsible for selling 1800 private homes in Scotland last year, despite a 6 per cent reduction in the number of SMEs on the previous year to just 125. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Susan added: 'There is a real opportunity for the new Cabinet Secretary for Housing to make a huge difference to the sector, especially those SME builders that deliver homes up and down Scotland. 'We are desperate to play our part in delivering the homes that Scotland needs. We just need the government to help us unleash this potential.' The report was developed in partnership with VELUX. The company's National Housing Development Manager Trevor Smith said:
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Half of SME housebuilders ‘to be bust by next election', report to warn
Half of Britain's 2,500 remaining smaller housebuilders could crash into insolvency by the end of this parliament as a consequence of the cost of industry regulations, a report will warn this week. Sky News has seen a document to be published on Tuesday - ahead of the government's spending review - which will refer to "a perfect storm of costs" that threatens to wipe out the profits of SME housebuilders. The bleak forecast is the principal conclusion of a report produced jointly by the public affairs firm WPI Strategy and ChamberlainWalker, an economics consultancy specialising in housing and planning. It casts a fresh shadow over the government's target of building 1.5m homes during the course of this parliament - one of its most important manifesto commitments ahead of last year's landslide victory. Money latest: On Monday, ministers said the use of a new artificial intelligence tool would facilitate the acceleration of planning permissions by reducing the reliance on paper documents. "For too long, our outdated planning system has held back our country- slowing down the development of vital infrastructure and making it harder to get the homes we need built," Sir Keir Starmer said. "This government is working hand in hand with business to change that. With [new AI tool] Extract, we're harnessing the power of AI to help planning officers cut red tape, speed up decisions, and unlock the new homes for hard-working people as part of our Plan for Change. "It's a bold step forward in our mission to build 1.5 million more homes and deliver a planning system that's fit for the 21st century." The WPI/ChamberlainWalker report will warn, however, that at the current rate of failure among SME builders, as many as 75,000 fewer homes would be built by smaller housebuilders before the next general election is due to be held in 2029. It will say that recently introduced regulations such as the Building Safety Levy have added close to £5bn of annual costs to housebuilders. The Future Homes Standard, Biodiversity Net Gain, accessibility rules and electric vehicle charging requirements are among the other incremental costs facing the sector. Labour and materials costs are also rising, while house prices have flatlined, adding to the pressure on the industry, with smaller players disproportionately affected, the report will add. Sean Worth, a director at WPI Strategy, said: "A diverse range of housebuilders is important to ensuring the country is able to meet its headline housing target. "It is also critical to maintaining a competitive market." "The government has rightly acknowledged the importance of supporting small and medium sized builders. "However, a perfect storm of costs inherited from the past few years as well as additional regulatory burdens means that without urgent assistance we could see half all of SME builders starting insolvency proceedings by the end of the parliament."
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Up to £3bn may be needed to fix building cladding
Up to £3bn of public money may have to be spent assessing and removing potentially flammable cladding from buildings in Scotland. New estimates from the Scottish government suggest up to 1,450 residential buildings may need remediation work, including about 250 high-rises. It was previously estimated about 900 buildings were affected. However, full surveys will be needed to establish what needs to be done on a case-by-case basis, with 107 buildings being examined as part of a pilot phase. It is now estimated that the Cladding Remediation Programme could cost £1.7bn to £3.1bn over a 15-year period. If new legislation is passed by the Scottish Parliament, additional funding could be unlocked to fix building safety issues. Ministers making 'painfully slow' cladding progress Scottish ministers given new powers to tackle cladding The Building Safety Levy (Scotland) Bill will see a tax charged on the construction of certain new residential properties, in line with equivalent legislation in England. The bill seeks to raise about £30m a year to help fund work to fix residential buildings with unsafe cladding which have no linked developer. Public Finance Minister Ivan McKee said: "The Scottish government is committed to doing what is right and necessary to address the challenge of fixing buildings affected by unsafe cladding. "That includes putting the appropriate funding arrangements in place to ensure that the associated costs of cladding remediation do not fall directly onto affected homeowners. "I know that developers share our determination to keep people safe and this levy will ensure they make a fair contribution to these costs, just as they will be doing in England." He added: "I also welcome the continued co-operation of developers who have accepted responsibility for the assessments and any required mitigation and remediation of their buildings." Trade body Homes for Scotland, whose members deliver the vast majority of all new homes in Scotland, said they were committed to remedial action on buildings they had built. But a spokesperson raised concerns about the impact of a building safety levy. "In addition to the proposed Building Safety Levy, Scotland's largest home builders are already contributing to the remediation of other impacted buildings through their payment of the Residential Property Development Tax (RPDT)," they said. The spokesperson said the proposed levy would mean an additional layer of taxation which "will add thousands of pounds to the cost of new homes, pushing families, first-time buyers and future generations further away from home ownership". They added: "At a time when Scotland is facing a housing emergency and 693,000 Scottish households are living in some form of housing need, this is simply unacceptable." The UK government agreed in principle to devolve the powers needed for a Scottish Building Safety Levy last year. Last month ministers announced plans to speed up efforts to inspect and repair buildings in response to the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London that killed 72 people. The 23-storey tower's cladding is believed to have contributed to the rapid spread of the fire. It broke out in the kitchen of a fourth-floor flat at the tower block in North Kensington, just before 01:00 on 14 June 2017. Within minutes, the fire had rapidly spread up the exterior of the building and moved across all four sides. By 03:00, most of the upper floors were well alight. As well as those killed, more than 70 people were injured. The Cladding Remediation Programme was set up in the aftermath of the disaster but Scottish ministers have been criticised for its slow progress. How are the laws on cladding changing in Scotland? 'No warning' over cladding evacuation, couple say
BBC News
06-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Building cladding: Up to £3bn could be spent in Scotland
Up to £3bn of public money may have to be spent assessing and removing potentially flammable cladding from buildings in estimates from the Scottish government suggest up to 1,450 residential buildings may need remediation work, including about 250 high-rises. It was previously estimated about 900 buildings were full surveys will be needed to establish what needs to be done on a case-by-case basis, with 107 buildings being examined as part of a pilot phase. It is now estimated that the Cladding Remediation Programme could cost £1.7bn to £3.1bn over a 15-year new legislation is passed by the Scottish Parliament, additional funding could be unlocked to fix building safety issues. The Building Safety Levy (Scotland) Bill will see a tax charged on the construction of certain new residential properties, in line with equivalent legislation in bill seeks to raise about £30m a year to help fund work to fix residential buildings with unsafe cladding which have no linked Finance Minister Ivan McKee said: "The Scottish government is committed to doing what is right and necessary to address the challenge of fixing buildings affected by unsafe cladding."That includes putting the appropriate funding arrangements in place to ensure that the associated costs of cladding remediation do not fall directly onto affected homeowners."I know that developers share our determination to keep people safe and this levy will ensure they make a fair contribution to these costs, just as they will be doing in England."He added: "I also welcome the continued co-operation of developers who have accepted responsibility for the assessments and any required mitigation and remediation of their buildings." Grenfell Tower fire The UK government agreed in principle to devolve the powers needed for a Scottish Building Safety Levy last month ministers announced plans to speed up efforts to inspect and repair buildings in response to the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London that killed 72 23-storey tower's cladding is believed to have contributed to the rapid spread of the broke out in the kitchen of a fourth-floor flat at the tower block in North Kensington, just before 01:00 on 14 June minutes, the fire had rapidly spread up the exterior of the building and moved across all four sides. By 03:00, most of the upper floors were well well as those killed, more than 70 people were Cladding Remediation Programme was set up in the aftermath of the disaster but Scottish ministers have been criticised for its slow progress.
BBC News
02-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
House building costs highest in London - Centre for London finds
The cost of building homes in London is more than in other parts of England, think tank analysis has Centre for London reported the upfront cost of constructing 88,000 new homes a year, the government's annual target for the capital, is roughly 43 times higher than the equivalent target in the West research was shared at the centre's 2025 housing summit on Wednesday, where Sem Moema, chair of the London Assembly housing committee, said: "If we don't fix the housing crisis, the character of the city will be extinguished."A Mayor of London spokesperson said: "The mayor will continue to work in partnership with the government to deliver more genuinely affordable homes." 'Closing schools' Separate polling by the think tank, which is politically independent, found 60% of Londoners surveyed had considered moving out of the capital due to housing costs rising over the past 12 months, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) Moema, a Labour member representing Hackney, Islington and Waltham Forest at City Hall, said: "I see in my own constituency the hollowing out that occurs and continues to occur, when the failure to fix the housing crisis for a decade and a half changes the character of our city, and not for the better."In all three boroughs, we're being forced to consider closing schools, because there are basically no children left in northeast London. "Families can no longer afford to own or even rent properties in my boroughs."Centre for London's research found the crisis is being exacerbated by the upfront cost to developers being at least £2.2bn, if they built enough homes to hit the government's target in the estimate was produced by combining the costs associated with the Building Safety Levy, Section 106 agreements, the Community Infrastructure Levy and planning fees for local councils, according to the analysis. The figure in the West Midlands metropolitan county – which includes Birmingham – was only £50.6m, and only slightly higher in Greater Manchester at £61.3m. In the London borough of Wandsworth alone, which had the highest cost of any London council area, according to the LDRS, the estimate was £253.9m. 'Invest in capital' Ms Moema said: "We have a generation who will never get on to the property ladder independently."We need to confront this reality. As with climate change, the costs of not doing anything will be greater than the costs of further investment."A spokesperson for the mayor said: "The mayor is working hard to turn things around, building on a strong track record of delivering tens of thousands of genuinely affordable homes across the capital and more new council homes than any time since the 1970s." 'Ambitious solutions' Commenting on the Labour government's approach to tackling the housing crisis, Centre for London CEO Antonia Jennings said: "We've seen increased investment in the Affordable Homes Programme, planning reform which allow building on low-quality sections of the green belt and the new Renters Reform Bill. "But, these are only the very first steps."She added: "We urgently need ambitious solutions that respond to the scale of the challenges facing the capital. "The government must get behind London's leaders and invest in the capital to finally turn the corner on the housing crisis." The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has said meeting the housing challenge in London is a "crucial part" of its national mission to build 1.5m homes and kickstart economic government added that it had made "£200m available through the Brownfield Infrastructure and Land fund to strategic sites across the capital".Another £81m from the Housing Infrastructure Fund is also being given to Transport for London (TfL) to make improvements to Surrey Quays Station and "unlock more than 8,000 new homes in Southwark and Lewisham".
