The prime minister’s new scheme to offer first-time buyers under 40 a 20% discount on the price of new-build home should help to boost output from SME house builders, with 15 members of the Federation of Master Builders already signed up to back the scheme.
They include Beattie Passiv, which has developed an offsite fabrication system that can achieve the Passivhaus standard, and London specialist Tilbury Projects.
They will be joined by 13 major names in UK house building, including Barratt, Countryside, Cala, Persimmon, Redrow and Taylor Woodrow.
David Cameron yesterday launched the scheme to build 100,000 homes that will be available only to first-time buyers, accelerating a launch that had been due in six months. “Under this scheme, first-time buyers will be offered the chance of a 20% discount, unlocking home ownership for a generation,” he said.
Starter Home properties will be built on brownfield sites, and developers will be exempt from Section 106 affordable housing contributions as well as the Community Infrastructure Levy.
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According to the DCLG press release, “builders can face an average bill of £15,000 per home in Section 106 affordable housing contributions and tariffs, often adding tens of thousands to the cost of a site”.
But exemption from the zero carbon homes standard, expected to be one of the “raft of taxes” that houses built under the Starter Home initiative would not pay, was not mentioned in the announcement.
This omission was seen as a victory by the UK Green Building Council, with John Alker, director of policy and communications saying: “Dropping the zero carbon exemption for Starter Home is a welcome climb-down. It appears government has listened to concerns, seen sense, and stuck to its guns on the policy for all new homes to be zero carbon from 2016.
“We should not have to compromise between the quantity and quality of new homes in the UK, and by adhering to the zero carbon standard, first-time buyers will enjoy homes that are of a better quality, and with significantly cheaper energy bills.”
The 15 FMB members have all pledged to consider bringing forward land to develop the new homes from next year. In a press statement, Brian Berry, FMB chief executive, said: “The government’s recognition of the importance of boosting supply from smaller house builders has been underlined by recent announcements extending the Builders Finance Fund to smaller sites and setting a 10 unit threshold on affordable housing and tariff style planning obligations. It is crucial that the Starter Home initiative will also be open to firms and sites of any size.”
He added: “It is now important that we make sure that the details of the scheme ensure that the central objective – to deliver 100,000 new homes for first time buyers at 80% of market value – is realisable in practice.”
Aspiring home owners will be asked to register their interest in buying via the Starter Home initiative from the start of next year, with work planned to start on site later in the year.
A consultation on the initiative will run for eight weeks.
