The Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has today announced a guarantee scheme worth £1 billion set up to ensure enough credit is available to allow smaller housebuilders to enter the market.
The Housing Secretary’s announcement to Parliament, which will no doubt come as welcome news to PHPD readers, confirmed the British Business Bank’s ENABLE Build Programme will shortly begin guaranteeing millions in new loans for local, independent construction businesses to deliver new homes.
Housing Secretary Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP said:
“Small housebuilders are vital to building the homes this country needs but too often struggle to access affordable finance.
“Today I am giving the green light to a scheme that will help to fix this. Supporting £1 billion of new loans so that local builders can kickstart building, level up the country and turbocharge the housing sector.”
Housing Minister Rt Hon Esther McVey MP added:
“When it comes to building houses, we mean business – this fund will give everyday lenders the confidence needed to do deals with smaller builders which get shovels in the ground.
“Today I have given the green light to £1 billion in loans to boost local builders, so they can deliver the homes our communities need across England.”
Since the scheme opened for applications in May 2019, the government has received interest from specialist and mainstream lenders – including high street banks – which want to be involved in this innovative scheme to deliver homes.
Following the credit crunch in 2008 figures show that only 1,737 small to medium size builders operate in England, with more needed to help respond to the demand for new homes.
Below Target
The news comes on the same day as figures released by the Ministry reveal that housebuilding rates are still falling below the Government’s own targets, with new build dwelling starts down 7% in the year to September 2019 compared to the year before.
image credit – Joe Gough/AdobeStock
