Removing barriers to small housebuilders will deliver better quality homes and happier people, according to the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) in response to a national design audit conducted by UCL for CPRE, the countryside charity, and the Place Alliance, that was published today (January 21, 2020).
Brian Berry, chief executive of the FMB, said: “Today’s report shows the impacts of 30 years of market consolidation, which has squeezed out the small builder. SME housebuilders have to compete on quality rather than volume, so it is hardly surprising that a broken housing market dominated by a handful of major developers is failing to deliver what homeowners want and need.”
Brian concluded: “To get SME builders back into the housing market, we need to tackle the barriers of land supply, access to finance and a simpler planning system. Greater diversity in our housing market will not only help deliver better quality homes, but happier people as recent FMB research shows that homeowners are twice as likely to be ‘very satisfied’ with the quality of their newbuild home if it is built by a small builder than one of the top 20 firms.”
