Housebuilders needed - no experience required, says HCA boss

The government should encourage a wider range of firms to build homes, including those with no prior experience, according to the chairman of the Homes and Communities Agency Ed Lister.

Lister, who is also former deputy mayor of London, told Building: “Why can’t any company come along and set up a development company using MMC (modern methods of construction) and build homes?”

Lister’s views appear to chime with the government, which has signalled it too wants a wider range of firms to build homes. Housing minister Gavin Barwell told Building last week prime minister Theresa May is “very keen” to see a wider range of organisations building new homes in the UK.

Discussing the government’s recently-announced £2bn Accelerated Construction scheme, which is to be led by the HCA, Lister said: “For us it’s a mechanism to try and drive the market […] It doesn’t matter who it is [building].”

The Accelerated Construction scheme will see public land with planning permission made available to builders who will be incentivised to use more modern building methods to deliver new homes at a quicker pace.

It is to run alongside a £3bn home building fund using previously-announced cash to provide loans to builders, which is also being headed up by the HCA.

SMEs are one of the sectors the HCA is hoping will be attracted by the scheme. But Lister said, others, including PRS developers, overseas companies and people on the fringes of construction might also be encouraged to come into the sector, as well as those interested in using MMC.

Lister added that the use of MMC could even stave off retirement for some construction industry professionals, such as bricklayers, as people who may no longer want to work on building sites later in life, may find factories an alternative option.

The HCA has already tendered for one site in the south of the country that has the potential to provide 1,000 housing units. Tenders for land via the scheme will question potential housebuilders as to how many homes they can build and how quickly and pricing, particualrly if the housebuilder cannot sell the units themselves and require the HCA to take them.

Both Lister and Barwell were speaking to Building at Mipim UK last week.