Government micro-managing housing says Crest boss

The Government will have a problem meeting its house building targets if it continues to overload the industry with social and environmental requirements, the boss of Crest Nicholson told the Ecobuild conference on Tuesday.

Stephen Stone added that the Government must choose to make fighting climate change the most important thing and discard some secondary measures.

Accusing the Government of ‘micromanaging,’ Stone warned that large areas of land outside London and the South East had negative value and expecting increasingly more of builders made things worse.

“We have increased room sizes, the Code for Sustainable Homes, energy requirements and, this morning, lifetime homes standards. We have libraries and schools and all sorts of community goodies.

Why would we spend £100,000 bidding on a project when we can’t make money? Sustainability includes a business model that makes money.

“But there is a limited pot of money available for all this. If Government has decided that climate change is the most important thing to tackle, then perhaps we should let the new libraries come second for a while.”

He add that it was a mistake to think that house builders were just competing against each other. “Only 10% of homes are new built each year and so we are not competing with other homebuilders, but with the second hand market.

“If you take away the costs, you just see land values and large areas of the country are in negative value. Why would we spend £100,000 bidding on a project when we can’t make money? Sustainability includes a business model that makes money. The Government has a massive problem on its hands.”