Home Builders Federation

Fully-funded spaces are available on open brickwork, dry lining and roofing courses later this month, and in the new year.

Share details with your subcontractors 👇

🧱👉 Brickwork: buff.ly/eF2YQu2
🏠👉 Roofing: buff.ly/ww5C6iK
🔩👉Dry Lining: buff.ly/GyvcuSV

The HBF Technical Conference returns 10 September 2026 🔔
(It'll be here before you know it...)

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This morning, we brought together SME home builders to highlight the most significant threats facing small and medium businesses.

The roundtable was sponsored by Mike Reader MP, Chair of the Built Environment APPG, and in partnership with Quantum Development Finance.

Thanks to all who joined us.

Budget 2025: Chancellor ‘listens to housebuilders’ and will not proceed with Landfill Tax proposals Problems viewing this email? view and print in your browser

➡️ Address growing viability pressures.
➡️ Provide near-term support for potential buyers.
➡️ Ensure planning reform is matched by measures that keep sites deliverable.

Without tackling both viability and affordability, housing targets will remain out of reach.

Budget 2025: Chancellor ‘listens to housebuilders’ and will not proceed with Landfill Tax proposals Problems viewing this email? view and print in your browser

However, the Budget sadly represents a missed opportunity to provide support for first-time buyers. With affordable mortgage lending still limited, demand remains suppressed, constraining builders’ ability to increase supply.

To deliver on its housing ambitions, Government must now

🔹 £48 million to boost planning capacity, including the recruitment of 350 additional planners and a new Planning Careers Hub.
🔹 Reforms to improve the performance of environmental regulators, supporting quicker decisions for major projects
🔹 Confirmation of a 10-year social housing rent settlement

However, while proposals to increase Landfill Tax by 3000% have been dropped, the revised approach still represents an increase in tax on development at a time when the economics of home building are already under considerable strain.

We do welcome the announcements of…

In today’s Budget, the Chancellor confirmed that the Government will not proceed with proposed changes to Landfill Tax following intense pressure from HBF and industry on its potential impact on housing delivery.

Ahead of tomorrow’s Autumn Budget, we’re spotlighting the constraints holding back home building and the decisive actions Government can take to change that.

From reducing regulatory burdens to easing infrastructure delays, see our recommendations 👇

💡Raise the threshold for small sites to provide meaningful relief for SME builders, encouraging more development of smaller-scale projects.

💡Address challenges within the Section 106 Affordable Housing market.

💡Reconsider the proposed abolition of the Reduced Rate of Landfill Tax, which will see costs increase by 3,000%.

💡Suspend the planned Building Safety Levy and instead seek contributions from product manufacturers and other responsible actors.

💡Stimulate demand through a new equity loan scheme for first-time buyers.

💡Impose a moratorium on further new policy costs, taxes & levies on home building, along with a comprehensive analysis of the unprecedented increase in policy costs imposed from across government departments in recent years.

💡Reduce Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and Section 106 obligations as these requirements place a heavier burden on SMEs relative to larger developers, undermining site viability.

💡Introduce common adoptable standards and mandate the adoption of public amenities on private estates, in line with the Competition and Markets Authority’s recommendations

💡Minimise the costs, delays, and uncertainty associated with utility and infrastructure connections

💡Raise the threshold for small sites to provide meaningful relief for SME builders, encouraging more development of smaller-scale projects.

💡Address challenges within the Section 106 Affordable Housing market.

💡Reconsider the proposed abolition of the Reduced Rate of Landfill Tax, which will see costs increase by 3,000%.

💡Suspend the planned Building Safety Levy and instead seek contributions from product manufacturers and other responsible actors.

💡Stimulate demand through a new equity loan scheme for first-time buyers.

💡Impose a moratorium on further new policy costs, taxes & levies on home building, along with a comprehensive analysis of the unprecedented increase in policy costs imposed from across government departments in recent years.

The Autumn Budget presents a real opportunity for decisive action that aligns political ambition with operational reality.

Our research and industry insight has highlighted clear interventions Government could take now that would lead to real differences on the ground 👇

Save the date 👉 the HBF Planning Conference returns 9 September 2026

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We had an inspiring day filming for the Women into Home Building programme at the Bellway Homes site in Barking Riverside.

The women shared their journeys, aspirations for breaking into the homebuilding industry, and the transformative impact the programme has had on their careers🏡

#WiHB

…Because the cumulative burden of these costs is preventing home builders from getting spades in the ground and directly undermines Government’s housing ambitions.

#StateOfPlay

🚫Biodiversity Net Gain

🚫Future Homes Standard

🚫Electric vehicle charging

🚫Building Safety Levy

We recognise the need for many of these policies, but Government must zoom out and consider the real operational impact…

In recent years, a combination of new regulatory requirements, taxes, and policy costs has made many sites unviable.

This includes…

🚫Landfill Tax rate changes

🚫Employers’ National Insurance increases

🚫Corporation Tax

🚫Residential Property Developer Tax

🚫Nutrient neutrality

The Government’s commitments to build more homes and the planning change introduced to date are welcome, but the scale of the challenge demands broader thinking.

Affordability and viability are key areas of concern that we hope to see addressed in next week's #Budget 💼

Net additions are now 16% below their 2019/20 peak of 248,600, with 190,600 new build homes delivered in 2024/25, down 4% on the previous year.

Today's stats speak for themselves, further evidencing the urgent need for meaningful action to support housing delivery.

Housing delivery in England has fallen by 6% in 2024/25 📉 🏡

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has released its housing supply statistics for 2024/25.

The figures show that there were 208,600 net additional dwellings in 2024/25, down 6% (-12,470) on 2023/24.

📍Implement a short-term solution to get Registered Providers’ support in contracting Section 106 Affordable Homes

#StateOfPlay

With the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget one week away, we’re calling on Government to 👇

📍Introduce a new homeownership scheme, part-funded by developers

📍Restore the previous first-time buyer Stamp Duty thresholds, while a review is carried out to determine the impact of this on the housing market

Planning reform is positive & much-needed, yet we also need to see action to stimulate the market.

The Stamp Duty threshold changes earlier this year added more strain to a market already weakened by low consumer confidence, increasingly unaffordable mortgages & lack of a first-time buyer support.

🔹£86 bn in economic activity has been supported, having generated over £10 bn in tax receipts, and sustained more than 130,000 jobs each year at its peak.

Read our full report – Payback Time – for a breakdown of the impact of Help to Buy.

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