Housing experts say budget is ‘disappointing for housing and planning’
Housing experts and politicians have expressed disappointment over the lack of major new initiatives in the chancellor George Osborne’s budget to tackle the UK’s housing crisis.
There were few measures specifically about housing in the chancellor’s speech and those that he did announce were mainly around planning, support for new homeowners and £115m, which had already been announced, to help tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.
Political opponents, housing experts and the construction industry were quick to criticise the chancellor. Labour MP and London mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan said the chancellor had missed the chance for a national plan to build more, new, affordable homes and said he was “shocked that the budget contains nothing to fix London’s housing crisis”. The Federation of Master Builders described the budget as a missed opportunity in the race to build more homes in Britain.