The Federation of Master Builders’ (FMB) annual House Builders’ Survey aims to build a clearer picture of the experience of small and medium-sized (SME) house builders in England. It is the only survey of its kind to do so.
This year’s report shows that small house builders predict that skills shortages in the building industry will hamper housing delivery and will eventually overtake access to finance as a bigger barrier to building new homes.
Key findings of the report:
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The percentage of SME house builders saying that a shortage of skilled workers is a major barrier to their ability to build more new homes rose to 44% (up from 42% in 2017);
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A lack of available and viable land tops the list as the most commonly cited barrier (59%) to increasing housing delivery and almost two-thirds of SME house builders (62%) believe that the number of opportunities for small site development are actually decreasing (up from 54% in 2017);
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Nearly half of small house builders (46%) say access to finance is a major barrier to their ability to build more new homes;
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More than half (51%) of SME house builders view the planning system as a major constraint on their ability to grow and ‘inadequate resourcing of planning departments’ was again rated as the most significant cause of delay in the planning application process for the third year in a row;
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When asked to look ahead over the next three years, more firms cited skills shortages as a likely barrier to growth than access to finance.
