The Housing Secretary’s plan to kick-start building looks ‘dead on arrival’ as the pipeline of new work dries up.
Steve Reed vowed to ‘build, baby, build’ in a bid to ‘unleash one of the biggest eras of building in our country’s history’ when he replaced Angela Rayner in the job earlier this week.
But a report by construction analysts Barbour ABI warns he faces ‘a near-impossible task’ of hitting Labour’s target for 1.5m new homes to be built in this Parliament – or 300,000 a year.
Building blitz: Steve Reed’s promise looks ‘dead on arrival’ as the pipeline of new work dries up
The report found residential contract awards – which enable work to begin on building sites as projects move from planning to execution – totalled just £1.1billion in August. That was down 35 per cent on the £1.7billion of awards in July and £2.5billion in October last year, before Rachel Reeves’ tax-raising Budget.
Planning approvals also fell 29 per cent in August to an 18-month low while new applications dropped 34 per cent. Barbour ABI head of business and client analytics
Ed Griffiths said: ‘Steve Reed’s call to ‘build, baby, build’ looks dead on arrival if these figures aren’t turned around quickly.’
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