New Scheme Aims To Speed Up Delivery Of New Houses
A new Government backed pilot scheme set up by the Housing and Finance Institute is being rolled out as with an aim to help speed up house building in the UK.
New houses currently being developed are facing hold ups caused by the failings of water companies according to a report impacting private developers from building more homes.
Chief executive of the Housing and Finance Institute Natalie Elphicke says that due to the lack of local infrastructure on new sites that are being developed for housing is drastically reducing the rate of which new homes are being completed and coming onto the market.
She said; “When we speak to housing developers, they often say it is water, electricity, gas, broadband and roads which are impeding their ability to build more homes faster.”
“Water and sewage connectivity is a particular problem, with some water companies completely failing to deliver what housing developers require.”
“This has been slowing down the rate of housing completions right across the country. Our hope is that this new pilot scheme, which brings together key players from the private and public sectors, will provide us with a blueprint for fixing these issues and facilitating accelerated housing growth,’ she added.”
Housing and Planning Minister Gavin Barwell and Stephen Hammond, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Infrastructure will review findings from the scheme that runs until May this year.
Mr. Barwell who is backing the the pilot pointed out that the Government is committed to speeding up housing delivery and ensuring that everyone plays their part towards building the homes the country needs.
He said;
“I welcome this new pilot scheme and its focus on identifying ways of working together to overcome infrastructure barriers, and I look forward to seeing the initial report on its findings.”
A water company can currently take between six months and a year to connect a property and still meet their regulatory target.
Research in the HFI’s summer report, Let’s Build More Homes Faster, revealed the scale of the failure currently being seen around the UK.
Of the water connection performance, only Dee Valley, which operates in Wales and Cheshire, secured 100% of connections.
Affinity Water which covers areas in the South East as well as in London failed its performance target by nearly 60pc while there were poor performances for Thames Water, Southern Water and South Staffordshire, all of which saw 20pc to 25pc failure rates in at least one quarter of 2015.
