Shadow Housing Minister, Emma Reynolds has announced plans for how a Labour government would deal with the housing shortage if they were to win the general election in 2015. Announcing the Help to Build Scheme, Reynolds said the new scheme would underwrite bank loans to smaller house-builders which it believes would unlock finances to get more houses built.


The number of registered homes built by companies building less than 500 units a year has dropped from 66% in 1988 to just 27% in 2013 and it’s believed 200,000 new homes need to be built to make up for the shortfall.


The proposed scheme has been warmly welcomed by the Federation of Master Builders (FMB). FMB chief executive Brian Berry explained: "Small house-builders have suffered very badly over recent years. They used to build two thirds of all new homes but they are now building just over a quarter and much of this reduction has happened in the past six years. This has inevitably had an impact on the overall capacity of the industry to build the number of new homes we need. The main barrier to SME house-builders building more homes is the difficulty they face accessing finance on viable terms. Until this problem is addressed the large number of small building firms that have diversified away from building homes won’t re-enter the market."