UK Autumn Statement 2015: The Construction Industry

After a period of stunted growth and struggle in the housing industry a certain ‘crisis of home ownership’ has come to light given the spike in house prices up and down the country. The Autumn Statement, announced on 25 November 2015 by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, outlined several steps and promised substantial funding to combat these recent struggles.

The Chancellor branded the building of affordable homes a priority for the UK, allocating £7bn in funding. That figure is divided up into multiple smaller chunks including £4bn towards the building of 135,000 homes for the Help To Buy scheme and £2.3bn allocated to housing developers helping first time buyers by giving 20% discounts on properties valued up to £250,000.

On top of this, a 3% increase in stamp duty on buy-to-let properties as well as on purchases of second homes was announced and will come into effect late in 2016.

The Autumn Statement has been generally well received by leading commentators for the construction industry and here at Construction Materials Online (CMO), we feel positive about the urgency placed on housing. With this house-building programme being the biggest in the UK since the 1970s, the Conservative government have aspirations to build at least 400,000 affordable homes in the next 5 years.

Following the huge success of CMO’s Roofing Superstore, the response to our second site, Drainage Superstore confirmed our own positive views on the direction that our industry has taken in recent years, and with the more recently launched Insulation Superstore seeing significant growth also, we are feeling confident about the future for construction.