Chancellor delivers £44bn Budget housing boost

The Chancellor has set out a bundle of fresh money, loans and policy changes to boost housing delivery to 300,000 homes by the mid 2020s.

The new housing stimulus package will see the housing infrastructure fund doubled to £2.7bn.

He also pledged to build five new garden towns by 2050 delivering an extra one million homes.

Philip Hammond said he would will also boost construction skills with an extra £34m and plough £630m into a small sites fund to “unstick” the delivery of 40,000 homes.

Stamp duty is abolished for first time buyers on homes up to £300,000 from today.

In London and other expensive areas, the first £300,000 of the cost of a £500,000 purchase by first-time buyers will be exempt from stamp duty

The Homes and Communities Agency will by renamed as Homes England, and given fresh powers to drive forward housing delivery including compulsory purchase orders.

Tory policy tsar Oliver Letwin will carry out a review into the housing gap between planning approval for sites and building work starting.

Spending highlights

National Productivity Investment Fund extended for a year and expanded to over £31bn

£1.7bn for Transforming Cities Fund to connect cities

£500m for 5G networks, fibre broadband

£320m to clean-up former Redcar steelwork site

£400m for electric car charging points

New National computing centre for computing

£20m to support Further Education colleges to teach T-Levels for those doing apprenticeships.

Pledge to fund local authorities for post Greenfell fire safety work

from Construction Enquirer http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2017/11/22/chancellor-delivers-44bn-budget-housing-boost/

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