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Stop utility companies delaying housebuilding, HFI urges Hammond
Chancellor Philip Hammond should introduce measures to force utility companies to connect up new homes on time at next week’s Budget, the Housing & Finance Institute (HFI) has said.
The HFI, which was established by former chancellor George Osborne in 2015, has called for new ‘utility direction powers’ as part of an eight-point plan to speed up housebuilding.
It also wants Mr Hammond to announce a new housing innovation fund to support novel ways of facing the housing crisis at the despatch box on 22 November.
The recommendations follow a six-month government-backed pilot scheme launched in response to water companies slowing down development by failing to link up new housing schemes.
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“Too often new homes are being delayed by hold-ups with utilities. Water, broadband and sewage connectivity is a particular problem, with some water companies completely failing to deliver what housing developers require,” said Natalie Elphicke, chief executive of the HFI.
“Infrastructure for housing is also at creaking point in some parts of the country. We won’t make the changes needed by doing things the same old way.
“That’s why we are calling for a new housing innovation fund to promote different and better ways of addressing the housing crisis.”
Under the recommendations, the utility direction powers would allow an authority such as the Homes and Communities Agency or a government minister to serve a direction order requiring a utility company to bring forward its services to a site within a specified timeframe.
Water companies are currently able to take up to a year to connect new homes and still comply with regulations.
The HFI is also calling for greater transparency over what kinds of homes are being built, as well as the introduction of new independent arbitrators to liaise with developers and utility companies.
Stephen Hammond, Conservative MP and chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Infrastructure, backed the recommendations.
He said: “We cannot allow blockages to hold up the release of more housing supply in the way they are doing now.”
