The Housing & Finance Institute researches on a board range of housing and finance related matters, including on budget matters and through our business market sentiment work. Our research and publications respond to issues arising in the marketplace, business and local government.
The HFi research papers have been extensively covered in the national and trade press.
Publications have included the following:
The theme of this report is to identify the issues which are holding back housebuilding across the country, and to make recommendations to help unlock a greater efficiency in housing delivery.
The report found that that there is a genuine cross-party consensus for a step change in housebuilding. Given this consensus, the report examines how this political ambition can be transferred into building more homes, faster.
The new HFi report identified the extent to which failure of the utilities companies is restricting housing growth. The report explores the mounting evidence that the performance of some utilities companies is having an adverse effect on housebuilding. For example, every water company in England failed its sewerage targets for housebuilding as an average over the 2015 published period.
These failures are slowing down housing delivery. New homes cannot be built without sewerage and fresh water connections. The report has also found that despite Ofgem reporting greater customer satisfaction in 2015, developers still had problems with connections to the electricity network.
How to Build More Homes, Faster sets out proposals to solve the effects these restrictions are having on greater housebuilding. The Report recommends Infrastructure Dependencies Mapping at a local and area level where Councils and LEPS work together to understand the requirements for utilities within an area. Another recommendation is for the Secretary of State (DCLG) to be given the power to force utilities who are failing to support housebuilding sufficiently to deliver utilities connections required in a timely manner.
Click here to downoad the report
