Let's Get Britain Building NOW! Petition
The APPG for SME Housebuilders is proud to support the 'Let's Get Britain Building NOW!' petition from Jewson, which is calling on the Government to take urgent and decisive action to address the UK's deepening housing and construction crisis.
Britain currently faces a shortfall of 6.5 million homes. To close that gap by 2040, the country needs to build 565,000 homes per year, more than double the current rate. Yet the conditions needed to achieve this are not in place. Since the global financial crisis of 2008, around 9,000 small and micro housebuilders have left the industry, with fewer than 2,000 now remaining. Planning processes alone can take years and cost hundreds of thousands of pounds with no guarantee of approval. Meanwhile, the construction sector faces over 35,000 unfilled vacancies and a looming skills shortage as a quarter of its workforce approaches retirement.
The petition is directed at the Secretary of State for Education, the Rt Hon Bridget Phillipson MP, and Chris McDonald MP, Minister for Construction, and calls for three key actions from Government: financial incentives to encourage people to buy or improve their homes; a simpler, faster and more affordable rules-based planning consent process; and stronger incentives to attract and train the next generation of construction workers.
You can sign the petition here: change.org/p/let-s-get-britain-building-now
