Category: 0 Reviewed

A Downing Street spokesperson said:

Today the Prime Minister met representatives of large and small housing developers, housing associations and local government to discuss achieving a step change in the delivery of new homes.

At the meeting, the Prime Minister emphasised the government’s ambition to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing our country today – fixing the broken housing market. For too many people, home ownership has moved increasingly out of reach, and people are finding themselves spending longer in insecure private rented accommodation that is becoming ever more expensive.

The Prime Minister outlined her plans to increase housing supply which means developers, big and small, local authorities and housing associations all stepping up to play their part.

Other issues discussed included making the most of modern methods of construction, having the skilled workers we need, helping small and medium sized enterprises grow and making sure planning permissions granted by councils were delivered into new homes.

Those in attendance also had an opportunity to set out their ideas and commitments, as well as the actions needed to remove the barriers they were facing in building new homes.

They also discussed some of the recent measures taken by government including enabling 130,000 more families to get on the housing ladder through the £10 billion Help to Buy scheme and an additional £2 billion for affordable housing.

It was a positive and collaborative meeting which needs to signal a step change in house building if we are to build a country that truly works for everyone.

Attendees

• Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
• Alok Sharma, Minister of State for Housing and Planning
• Melanie Dawes, Permanent Secretary of the Department for Communities and Local Government
• Paul Hackett, Chair of g15, CEO of Optivo
• Chris Carr, Carr & Carr
• Muhammad A Bhatti, Managing Director of Apex Airspace
• Nigel Hugill, Chief Executive of Urban & Civic PLC
• Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive of Local Government Association
• Robert Luck, Chief Executive of Top Hat
• David Montague, Chief Executive of London & Quadrant Housing Trust
• Peter Andrew, Deputy Chairman of Home Builders Federation
• David Orr, Chief Executive of National Housing Federation
• Peter Redfern, CEO of Taylor Wimpey
• David Thomas, CEO of Barratt Developments
• Nigel Wilson, Chief Executive of Legal and General
• Lord Porter of Spalding CBE, Chair of the Local Government Association
• Terrie Alafat, Chief Executive of Chartered Institute of Housing
• Peter Connolly, Chief Executive of Igloo
• Angus Dodd, Chief Executive of Quintain
• Tracy Harrison, Deputy Chief Executive of Northern Housing Consortium
• Josh Murray, Group Director of Corporate Affairs at Laing O’Rourke

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP said:

Last night’s announcement that Airbus is taking a stake in Bombardier’s C-Series is positive and welcome news for Northern Ireland.

We have been working tirelessly across Government to secure the future of the C-Series in recent months, and we will continue to do all we can to ensure the unjustified case brought by Boeing reaches a swift and effective resolution.

Our number one priority throughout has been to safeguard jobs and livelihoods in Belfast. While there are still some steps before the deal is completed, this is clearly a significant move forward for the C-Series and for the workforce in Northern Ireland.

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP said:

I want to pay tribute to the efforts of everyone from the civil contingency groups and the emergency services who have been working diligently to help keep people safe during the last 48 hours as Storm Ophelia hit Northern Ireland.

The close co-operation between these groups mean that effective action was taken to ensure public services and people’s lives were protected.

While there is still more to do, significant efforts have already been put in to see that electricity supplies are restored and debris on our road networks is removed. The recovery operation, which has involved hundreds of people through the night and taken place in very challenging circumstances, will continue over the coming hours.

What we have seen over the last 48 hours is the resilience of Northern Ireland, the resourcefulness and community spirit of its people, and the commitment and professionalism of Northern Ireland’s front line responders.