UK Government Aims to Get Britain Building Again

The UK government is stepping up its efforts to get Britain building again as Housing Minister, Grant Shapps has just announced a new partnership between the government and the National House Building Council (NHBC), according to an article on social housing website 24dash.com.

It's hoped that this new partnership will provide the government with greater insight into the house building industry, and will help it to assess the effectiveness of its efforts to get things moving again. The NHBC is to provide ministers with additional information about house building. This new information will include new build activity levels, information on stalled developments, including the reasons as to why, as well as information on design and building quality and the sustainability, and also how fast new homes are being built. It's hoped all this extra data will give the government fresh insight into how proposed policies may affect the housing market, and both parties are hopeful it will make a difference.

The NHBC is currently responsible for providing 10 year warranties on more than 80% of newly built homes in the UK, and is looking forward to working closely with the government to help deliver newly built, high-quality and sustainable homes.
The UK government has recently taken action to try to get the construction industry moving again, and its £400 million plan, the Get Britain Building Fund is supposed to help restart building projects which have stalled. Its Mortgage Indemnity Scheme should give first-time buyers greater access to funds to help them purchase newly built homes.

British house builder Barratt Developments recently said that Britain faces a shortage of 1 million new homes by 2015 as construction isn't keeping up with the growing population. At the moment the industry is building around 120,000 homes annually, but the demand is there for well over 200,000, creating an imbalance in the market.