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The best way to speed up housing delivery is to get more small builders back into the market and focus more attention on the potential of smaller sites, according to the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).

Brian Berry Chief Executive of the FMB, said “Small sites tend to deliver more quickly and smaller builders, for whom short term financing is more of a concern, have every incentive to build and sell quickly. More opportunities for these smaller developments will diversify the market, boost capacity and speed up delivery. The Government has clearly recognised this, and is setting out a raft of changes to national planning policy that will encourage more small sites to come forward. We particularly welcome the move to ensure that at least 20% of the sites identified for housing in local authority’s plans are smaller sites.

Secretary of State for Communities, The Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP, has confirmed a massive funding boost for social housing across the country.

Over £1bn has been secured in the social housing deal, which will deliver 23,000 affordable homes across the UK through a new generation of council housing. The funding is aimed at helping solve the housing crisis and provide the country with the homes communities need.

Some £1.67bn will be invested in providing more than 23,000 new affordable homes, including at least 12,500 social rent homes in high cost areas in a move to support families struggling to pay their rent.

New ‘Solving the Housing Crisis?’ programme examines the contribution social housing makes to our society and what the government can do to support people in need of a home.

Terrie Alafat CBE, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), said "Can we really call ourselves a civilised society if we are not providing affordable homes for people who need them?"

Interviewed exclusively for 'Solving the Housing Crisis?', a news and current affairs-style programme created by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and ITN Productions, Terrie Alafat also championed the work of local authorities and housing associations.

A review of house building has called for changes to the current system to ensure new homes are built faster and for thousands more British bricklayers to be trained to help meet government targets.

Sir Oliver Letwin was commissioned by the government to examine what could be done to speed up the slow rate of house building on major sites.

His study, published today, warns developers are slowing the system down by limiting the number of new built homes that are released for sale at any one time.

Government figures taken from 'Quarterly Right to Buy Sales in England: October to December 2017-18’ show dwindling numbers of social housing under the Right to Buy scheme. 

The data shows: 

• that in the last year, 11,649 social homes have been sold off – while only 4,566 social homes are being built
• this means only one social home is being built for almost every three sold

Campaigns Director for housing and homelessness charity Shelter, Greg Beales said “These dismal figures show that at a time when more families than ever need affordable homes, their chances of getting one are being wrenched away.

A shocking four in ten people (43%) in Britain live in homes which fail to meet the ‘Living Home Standard’ – a measure of what makes an acceptable home.

Designed to be the housing equivalent of the Living Wage, the new Living Home Standard was developed by the public, for the public through a series of discussion groups, workshops and surveys. For the first time it revealed a measure of what everyone should have from a home in order to live, rather than just get by.

One year on from the tragic Grenfell fire, and many survivors are still waiting for a new home – but new analysis from Shelter reveals the situation is similarly stark right across the country. 

Over one million households in need of a social home are stuck on long waiting lists, often for years on end. Yet the number of social homes becoming available is extremely low. leading to a huge gap.

Shelter’s analysis shows there are 1.15m households on waiting lists, but only 290,000 social homes were made available last year – a difference of more than 800,000 homes.