![Chancellor Rachel Reeves (centre) on a recent visit to a building site [Photo from HM Treasury via Facebook]](http://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/img-cache/d526015462ab806cbb70bb348d801f0f/750x500_top_1761809881_chancellor-on-building-site.jpg)
The Construction Products Association (CPA) is forecasting that house-building will not even return to 2022 levels until at least 2028 and will not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2029 or 2030.
Furthermore, the government is likely to miss its own target (1.5 million new homes by 2029) by 30%, even before any potentially negative impacts of the forthcoming budget next month.
CPA chief executive Peter Caplehorn has written to chancellor Rachel Reeves pressing for reinstatement of government support for buyers, particularly first-time buyers.
Caplehorn told Reeves: “We recommend the Home Builders Federation’s idea for a replacement equity loan scheme for first-time buyers which would boost first-time buyers’ deposits, giving them access to new build mortgages at lower loan-to-value ratios which are priced more affordably. Developers would pay a fee like the ‘commercial fee’ payable by mortgage lenders for access to the mortgage guarantee scheme, whilst HMG would retain the full equity share and potential returns.”
He also recommends a ‘delivery authority’ for the retrofit of the UK’s existing housing and, in infrastructure, a focus on repair and maintenance over grand new projects.
“Infrastructure investment in major new projects is critical for the medium and long-term. In a tight budgetary environment however, by focusing efforts on near-term basic repairs and maintenance that have a quicker turnaround, the UK economy and productivity could enjoy an immediate return on investment for taxpayers along with a sizeable stimulus for the sector,” Caplehorn writes.
The CPA’s autumn forecasts, published earlier this week, downgraded expected growth from 1.9% to 1.1% this year and from 3.7% down for 2.8% for 2026 because of a sluggish summer for the construction