Surveyors have little faith in government housing strategy, RICS finds
The government's proposals to boost housebuilding are unlikely to be effective, according to an industry survey that found little more than one in 10 chartered surveyors backed the plans.
Just 12% of surveyors nationally expressed any confidence in plans designed to build 300,000 homes a year, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors survey showed.
November's Budget and the housing white paper set out various measures intended to deal with the UK's shortage of homes. But RICS' quarterly construction and infrastructure market survey suggests more action is required.
Respondents said a £1.1bn fund to unlock sites for building, including new settlements and urban regeneration, was the most promising measure with 37% approval. Lifting limits on borrowing caps for local councils got 18% support and adding £2.7bn to the housing infrastructure fund won the enthusiasm of just 16% of surveyors.
Lewis Johnston, RICS parliamentary affairs manager, said: "It’s clear more radical action is needed. As we said at the time of the autumn Budget, the smorgasbord of policies set out by the Chancellor did not amount to the fundamental step-change we need to really shift the dial on housing."
Johnston said the government should go further with the policies surveyors thought would be most effective such as the fund for unlocking sites. Councils should also be given more funding and a pipeline of suitable land and the government needs to address skills shortages and encourage modern production methods, he said.
The survey found optimism for construction workloads despite Brexit uncertainties dampening appetite for investmen and other constraints. Two-thirds of London respondents reported a lack of sufficiently skilled surveyors with about half reporting a shortage of other construction professionals and 43% saying there were not enough "blue collar" workers.
Jeffrey Matsu, RICS' senior economist, said: "While expectations for the year ahead remain positive, surveyors express very limited faith in the government’s national strategy to deliver on its revised housing delivery target. Capacity constraints notwithstanding, the ability of the sector to contribute more sustainably to economic prosperity will depend largely on more coherent policies addressing issues ranging from workforce development to local planning and permissioning [of projects].”