Mark Farmer was sitting before the housing select committee
Cast chief executive Mark Farmer has told MPs the current Help to Buy is a missed opportunity to promote modern methods of construction and better quality homes.
Farmer, who led an independent government review into construction’s labour market in 2016, said: “At the moment the Help to Buy policy is being used in a fairly indiscriminate way – some would say a slightly unintelligent way.
“The way housebuilders are accessing Help to Buy doesn’t have any conditionality linked to modernising their delivery models and creating high-quality homes.”
Speaking in front of the Housing, Communities and Local Government committee on Monday, Farmer (pictured) praised Homes England for recognising modern methods of construction as part of its programme of public land disposal.
But he said government needed to “get more muscular” with driving progress in the industry, adding: “From a policy perspective there are still some important levers that have not been pulled.”
2 Readers' comments