Summary
The government target for building houses in the UK is 300,000 a year, but over the past few years only around 60 per cent of that number have been constructed. The sector faces many challenges; labour and skills shortages and rapidly rising prices for raw materials, not to mention uneven planning laws and green building commitments.
Are they building the homes the country needs and where it needs them? Evan Davis and guests discuss.
GUESTS
Ben Dimson, Partner, Property Sector, McKinsey
Peter Truscott, CEO, Crest Nicholson
Rico Wojtulewicz, Head of Housing and Planning, National Federation of Builders
Presenter: Evan Davis Producers: Julie Ball and Lucinda Borrell Editors: Hugh Levinson and Jon Bithrey Sound: James Beard, Rod Farquhar Production Co-ordinators: Siobhan Reed and Helena Warwick-Cross
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:05.3 | Hello, welcome to the programme. |
| 0:07.6 | Does anyone have a good word for the house-building industry of Britain? |
| 0:11.6 | There are some who think the big-name developers build too little, |
| 0:14.6 | that they hoard land rather than use it for new homes. |
| 0:18.2 | There are some who think they build too much, |
| 0:20.1 | or at least too much in their particular village. There are some who think they build too much, or at least too much |
| 0:21.0 | in their particular village. There are many who think they build unsuitable, box-like homes, |
| 0:26.1 | that are insufficiently green or invariably only work for those who have a car. So yes, |
| 0:31.7 | there's a lot that people complain about when it comes to house builders. But the builders |
| 0:36.1 | complain too about local authority |
| 0:37.8 | planning departments and stretched supply chains. So we thought we should ask whether the industry |
| 0:44.5 | is working, how it can meet the opposing demands of higher-spec greener homes with the goal of |
| 0:50.8 | building more and more affordable dwellings all at a time when labour is short. |
| 0:56.2 | And I have three guests with me. And let's spend a few minutes first with Peter Truscott, |
| 1:00.8 | Chief Executive of Crest Nicholson, a property development company specialising in building residential houses. |
| 1:07.8 | So Peter, just tell us a little about the company, what you do, where you do it and what kind of homes. |
| 1:13.2 | Kress Nicholson is one of the UK's largest volume house builders. |
| 1:17.9 | Typically we build somewhere between 2,500 and 3,000 dwellings per year. |
| 1:23.7 | And those are concentrated mainly in southern England and particularly around the commuter belts |
| 1:28.9 | around our major towns and cities, |
| 1:31.0 | London, for example, and also Bristol. |
... |
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