Theresa May wants to use the power of Government to repair the “dysfunctional housing market”. In her first party conference speech as leader, the Prime Minister announced measures to increase the number of new homes being built. These include using public sector land and more Government investment to meet the need for more homes.

Our analysis shows that we should be building around 300,000 new homes a year to meet need and address years of undersupply. Yet, in the year to March 2015, even with the support of Help to Buy, we delivered 171,000 net additional homes. This leaves an annual shortfall of 129,000.

With transaction levels likely to come under some pressure, it is essential that new markets are opened up to narrow this gap. So, it is important that we have also seen a shift away from a single focus on building new homes for home ownership to a recognition that we need to deliver more homes of every single type.

We expect to see more detail in a Housing White Paper later in the year as well as further announcements in the Autumn Statement on the 23rd November.

Below is a summary of recent policy announcements so far:

HOME BUILDING FUND

This source of funding is administered by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA). It will provide £1 billion of short-term loan funding targeted at SMEs and custom builders, with the aim to deliver 25,000 homes by 2020.

The scheme will also provide £2 billion funding for infrastructure with the emphasis on brownfield land and aims to unlock a pipeline of up to 200,000 homes over the longer term. Loans can range from £250,000 to £250 million.

ACCELERATED CONSTRUCTION FUND

This fund will use £2 billion of public sector borrowing to support faster delivery of housing on public sector land. Government will deliver outline planning permission and undertake the costs of some remediation work to reduce development risks on their sites. It will also offer support to local authorities to do the same on theirs.

As part of the initiative to help reduce development risk, this scheme could also be used to buy unsold stock. Both of these funds are accompanied by plans to create a presumption for housing development on suitable brownfield land.

^{▲ A multi-tenure approach may be adopted}

Beyond Home Ownership

Gavin Barwell, the housing minister, has also signalled that the Government may shift away from the “statutory definition” of Starter Homes. Instead we may see a more multi-tenure approach to housing delivery and Starter Homes emerge in a slightly different guise.

A much broader approach to housebuilding is needed more than ever before. Although it is early days, the initial signs are that the new Government is alive to this.

We now need to see a suite of policies which support increasing supply through widening the range of developers, diversifying tenure and increasing land supply in the right places.