Accelerating construction of new homes should be possible without compromising on housing quality, according to the chair of an influential MPs’ group.
Speaking at the launch of CIOB’s report on new homes quality in Westminster on 18 December, Andrew Lewer, who is the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for SME housebuilders, dismissed the notion that mass housebuilding and quality homes are incompatible.
“The report highlights that quantity and quality are not in conflict when it comes to housebuilding,” he said.
Minister for housing Lee Rowley attended the event and acknowledged that despite the government’s progress on building safety and remediation over the past year, much more needs to be done in the industry to set and maintain quality standards.
“The CIOB report highlights the importance of [housebuilding] standards being met and people having confidence in new build, both now and in the future,” Rowley said.
Understanding the challenges
“As a parliamentarian, whilst we immerse ourselves in subjects like this, we are not necessarily from the sector and it’s only by talking to you and people who work in it every day that we properly understand both the challenges and the opportunities in housing.”
The event was attended by politicians, policymakers and leading trade body officials from across the housing and construction industry. These included Caroline Nokes MP, Tan Dhesi MP, CIOB president Sandi Rhys Jones and chief executive Caroline Gumble, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors chief executive Justin Young and Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists chief executive, Tara Page.
Lewer also thanked CIOB for its work promoting the industry’s voices in parliament: “Within the sort of alphabet soup of building organisations, CIOB stands out. Instead of just doing the London thing, CIOB arranged a round table in my constituency [Northampton South] for me to meet local members and builders and about our local needs and what is going on for us – that marked the institute out for me.”
The CIOB report examines the consumer protections in place to hold developers to account for quality failures in new-build housing. As part of the research, CIOB commissioned a survey of 2,000 adults in the UK on public perceptions of new builds.
It showed that 55% of people believe that older homes are better quality than new builds and almost a third (32%) described new-build homes as ‘poor quality’.
CIOB’s report New-build housing – how regulation can improve the consumer journey can be downloaded at www.ciob.org.
