The renewed All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for SME Housebuilders has been formally launched in this parliamentary term, following its dissolution at the end of the last Parliament. During the APPG’s inaugural meeting, Mike Wood MP, Lord Snape and Lord Austin were appointed officers and Sarah Edwards, MP for Tamworth, has been appointed as its new Chair, the first woman to hold the position. Sarah also sits on the Business and Trade Select Committee. 

The APPG will provide a dedicated forum for MPs, Peers, industry leaders, and policymakers to address the challenges facing small and medium-sized housebuilders and support their crucial role in addressing the housing shortage in the UK. Close Brothers Property Finance has been announced as the first industry partner to sign up to the APPG. 

The APPG’s forward programme will focus on key issues including: 

• Advocating for a more efficient, transparent, and SME-friendly planning system. 

• Exploring ways to improve funding opportunities for smaller developers. 

• Ensuring the industry can attract and retain the skilled workers needed to build quality homes.   

• Sustainability and innovation – investigating modern, low-carbon construction methods to help meet environmental targets. 

• Addressing barriers to land access to enable SME builders to contribute to housing supply.

The Group builds on the success of previous initiatives, including the I Am a Housebuilder programme, which has provided mentorship and support for women entering the industry with the objective of increasing diversity and helping to tackle the skills shortage.   

The State of Play report by Close Brothers Property Finance, the HBF and Travis Perkins highlights the opportunities and challenges facing the sector. For each of the five years in which the report has been produced, planning has consistently been cited by nine out of 10 SMEs as the number one barrier to growth.  

Sarah Edwards MP, Chair of the APPG for SME Housebuilders, says: “This is a sector that is ready to grow and can create jobs in constituencies like mine and right across the UK. In my role as chair, I look forward to working with these businesses so that we can build the homes that families desperately need.’ 

Edwin de Silva, Secretariat for Membership of the APPG, who also champions the interests of SME housebuilders for STARK UK, says: “Supporting SMEs is critical to achieving our national housing targets. We need to ensure that planning laws are reformed and SMEs are given the backing they need to thrive. I hope the APPG will be a powerful voice for the sector, ensuring that MPs and the government listen to their concerns and work together to unlock their full potential, improve and develop our communities and skills base.” 

Phil Hooper, Chief Executive Officer of Close Brothers Property Finance says: “The vital role that SME housebuilders play in building high-quality sustainable homes cannot be overstated. Close Brothers Property Finance is a proud advocate for SMEs and supports the APPG’s efforts to drive positive change within the industry, levelling the playing field for SMEs.” 

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Close to two thirds of British residents are not confident that the new Government can meet its targets for homebuilding during the next five years.

According to new data from MyBuilder.com, the reliable way to hire tradespeople, 57 per cent of people are NOT confident that government targets for house building will be met. In the age range of over 55s, this jumps to 72 per cent stating that they are not confident that these aims will be achieved.

Geographically there are some variations in the levels of confidence of British people in the house building targets. Bristol has the least confidence, with 70 per cent of those surveyed believing the goals would not be met, while Londoners had more confidence, with less than half (48 per cent) stating that they did not think the Government would achieve its goals.

The list below shows the percentage of respondents in each geographical who are not confident that the government will meet its house building targets:

• Southampton 68%
• Nottingham 67%
• Brighton 65%
• Birmingham 63%
• Norwich 61%
• Manchester 59%
• Wales 57%
• Scotland 57%
• Liverpool 56%
• Leeds 55%
• Newcastle 55%

Professionals from MyBuilder.com have pointed out that the current skills shortage in construction and the skilled trades could make this new target problematic.

Government policy around house building targets in the UK has been inconsistent over the past 15 years, with 16 housing ministers since 2010. Despite repeated pledges to build more homes by successive governments, no targets have been met in the last 20 years. Meanwhile, the housing shortage continues to grow, with an estimated shortfall of over four million homes across Britain.

The newly-elected government has stated that it has a target of building 1.5 million houses by 2029. While experts at MyBuilder.com welcome this ambitious target, it raised concerns around how realistic this is, taking into account the skills shortage within the building industry.

According to recent research from the UK Trade Skills Index (2023), the UK is facing its largest ever deficit of skills tradespeople in history. The industry will need to recruit close to a million new apprentices in the next ten years just to stay afloat – and that’s without an increase in house building targets. The Skills Index also found that the UK has seen a worrying rise of skills shortages across construction – from 29 per cent in Q1 2021, to 55 per cent in Q4 2021. Widespread shortages exist particularly among plumbers, bricklayers, carpenters, and electricians.

Andy Simms, from MyBuilder.com, said that the government must do all it can to encourage young people into trades to address the skills shortages.

“It’s great to see that the new government is keen to prioritise house building when there is such a problem in this area.

“Government incentives helped the UK see a spike in trades apprenticeships, but in 2021 nearly half of this apprenticeship levy was unspent. The government must work with the education system to promote the trades as a career path, or we will be facing bigger shortages than ever at a time when house building needs to be a priority for the British people.”

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