Today (27 October) marks the arrival of the Autumn Budget, as chancellor Rishi Sunak vows to inject £1.8m brownfield funding and build back better and greener, pledging £3.9bn to decarbonise buildings to reach the net zero target by 2050
Autumn Budget 2021 commitments include:
- A £1.8bn brownfield fund to boost brownfield construction across the country and deliver much-needed housing.
- £11.5bn investment in the Affordable Homes Programme to build up to 180,000 new affordable homes from 2021-2026.
- Up to £65m investment to ramp up England’s planning system through digital software, making local plans more accessible.
- A funding of £9m to assist local authorities in creating 100 new ‘pocket parks’ to regenerate urban spaces.
- Invest £1.7bn from the Levelling Up Fund into towns and cities across England.
- An amount of £2.6bn funding to be injected into road maintenance between 2020 and 2025.
- Increase investment to support ‘London-style’ transport networks across the UK.
- Research and development government spending target will reach £22bn by 2026-27- two years later than the initial plan.
- Government spending on skills and training will see a 42% increase, at £3.6bn.
- A £6.1bn investment to back the Transport Decarbonisation Plan.
- The offshore wind sector will see £380m investment, to help boost jobs and investment across the UK.
- A £3.9bn fund to aid in the decarbonisation of buildings across the UK, with a pledge to invest a further £1.8bn into supporting low-income households to make the net-zero transition.
- New investment incentives totalling at almost £750m, including tax relief for eligible green investments
Industry response to the Autumn Budget 2021
‘A real impact in making the UK more sustainable’
Sean Keyes, managing director at Sutcliffe, said: “The £1.8bn pledged towards brownfield housing developments is closest to our hearts as engineers and will make a real impact in making the UK more sustainable, as it’ll not only stop us from using Greenfield sites, but also help us clean up brownfield land.
“The digitisation of the planning system is also something I’ve personally spoken to a lot of local planners about in the past and the general consensus is that most people are struggling to meet planning times at the moment, which means projects then start at a slower timescale, which then halts the economy.
“Investment in speeding up the planning system is well received across the construction and property sector and something that has been a long time coming.”
Kevin Tully, managing director at Tulway, added: “You can’t put an exact figure on how much the budget will affect us, but if an increase in taxes from the budget ends up going into working people’s pockets, then that can only be a good thing in my eyes.
“I don’t like to see employers complaining about paying their staff more and having given out 3.8% pay rises across the board at Tulway, I’d like to see more companies following suit, as it is the workers who have carried us all through the pandemic.
“A national insurance rise will affect business and their employers, but I’m hopeful that a rise in wages will cancel this out. Enough is being done to claw back Covid costs, but nothing will be reclaimed this budget or the next budget.
“Clawing these funds back will take over a generation and will come over many years and governments, but at least we have made a start now and we need to place a huge impetus on the future generation and boosting employment figures now, which in return will support the economy for years to come.”
‘A multi-billion-pound myriad of mistakes’
Mary-Anne Bowring, group managing director at Ringley Group, commented: “A blanket tax on developers is fairer than leaving leaseholders to shoulder the burden but it is still a blunt instrument to use to fix the cladding crisis.
“Fundamentally, accountability should fall squarely on those who overlooked the potential hazards of unsafe cladding in the first place.
“That those responsible should cover the costs of what is ultimately a multi-billion pound myriad of mistakes is an obvious resolution to anyone, and it’s frankly bizarre that we’re still debating this when recent fire safety legislation provided the perfect opportunity to protect vulnerable leaseholders.
“Instead, those most affected are more unclear than ever as to their obligations, or who to turn to, and are increasingly side-lined in discussions about fire and building safety.
“Replacing unfit cladding systems continues to eat away at the Building Safety Fund at an alarming rate of £30m a month, and these allocations only cover high-risk buildings. Empowering leaseholders and occupiers with a voice should be at the forefront of future Government action.”
‘Green growth and sustainable housing delivery’
Founder of Etopia Group, Joseph Daniels, said: “We support the continued priority shown to brownfield land for new housing, but in solving one problem, it’s important that ministers don’t add to another.
“The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates that the total cost of making the UK’s 29 million homes net-zero by 2050 currently stands at £250bn.
“However, this figure increases with every day that we build homes that will require retrofitting when new building regulations come into play by 2026 as part of the Future Homes Standard.
“Therefore, ministers must mandate that homes being delivered as part of this fund are some of the country’s most energy-efficient in order to avoid future retrofit costs.
“It is often possible to deliver homes on vacant, brownfield land, and often such land sits close-by existing housing, permitting synergies with local amenity and infrastructure.
“Brownfield land remediation does entail some additional costs, and the success of the Brownfield Land Release Fund shows how support for those costs can help to unblock housing supply.
“Today’s announcement of further funding is welcome, but it is important that it is spread geographically in support of green growth and sustainable housing delivery in areas of need.”
‘Building better pathways into work’
Responding to the Budget statement, CITB policy director Steve Radley, commented: “Today’s announcement on infrastructure spending, on top of government plans to meet its net-zero commitments, show it’s critical to invest in construction skills.
“With employers already facing significant skills pressures, we must attract new talent from all areas and upskill the existing workforce.
“Today’s large-scale investments in T levels, maths, Skills Bootcamps and modernising Further Education will provide crucial support on skills and should help to ease pressure on employers looking to recruit and train.
“Building better pathways into work through traineeships and bootcamps and helping colleges to modernise are key investments.
“We look forward to building on our work so far to shape these programmes to deliver the skills the industry needs.”
