Ministers say European builders will still have a role to play in meeting the one million homes target after Brexit
Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Sajid Javid said Brexit and new border controls will not get in the way of the government’s housebuilding targets.
European builders will join a list of EU migrants that will still be welcome in the UK after it withdraws from the union. Javid said any new immigration system would be designed in a way that ensured “the building sector has got whatever it needs to reach my ambition” of building one million new homes by 2020.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Javid stated house building and tackling the growing housing crisis was his “number one priority”.
Since the EU referendum vote, the construction sector has been uneasy about the fate of EU workers. Nearly 250,000 workers are employed in the construction industry from overseas. This includes more than 30,000 from Poland and nearly 25,000 from Romania. Construction relies heavily on skilled workers from the union and is currently in the throes of a major skills shortage, which could be exacerbated by withdrawing from the EU. Javid’s assurances will undoubtedly offer a measure of relief for developers and housebuilders alike.
Javid said while he could not predict “what the future might look like in terms of work visas and foreign workers”, he offered assurances the skilled workers needed would be available for UK businesses.
Speaking before the Conservative conference, which started on Sunday, he said: “Wherever we end up, the government is determined to get a good deal for Britain.
“Whether it’s construction or any other sector, we don’t want to make it any more difficult for those industries than it is.”
Javid also said he would focus on supply volumes, rather than trying to boost the number of homeowners.
“The starting point for me is about the total supply of housing,” he said.
“It cannot just be about ownership. It cannot just be helping people with a deposit or helping them with their mortgage, it has to be a much bigger increase in overall volume and it has to be sustainable, it cannot be a sudden burst for one year.”
He also said English councils need to come up with a local plan by early 2017. Local plans are currently incomplete at more than a quarter of councils, according to statistics from Whitehall. Javid added he would “be very tough” on local authorities that fail to allocate enough land for housing.
“The rules are there to be observed,” Javid said. “Soon we will be at a point where we will be able to judge councils across the board and see if they have met those rules and if they don’t they can expect us to be very tough on them.”
