‘Building homes key to UK growth’

Britain’s largest business lobby group says the government can generate a vital £18 billion for the economy through a £1.25 billion investment in the housing sector.

The Confederation of British Industries (CBI) said the government should use the fund to built 50,000 new affordable homes that would create some 75,000 jobs and kickstart the economy.

The construction sector accounts for seven percent of the British economy and has recently received a blow with official figures from a survey by the Office for National Statistics and the Markit/CIPS construction purchasing managers’ index, showing the sector shrank every month since last October, including 6.3 percent only in January.

“To boost the construction sector, we are calling for 50,000 new affordable homes to be built, incentives for refurbishing empty homes and the building guarantee scheme to be extended to all types of housing,” CBI director general John Cridland said.

“House building offers the most bang-for-buck in growth terms – unleashing pent-up demand, while creating jobs and growth,” he added.

This follows a call by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) for the construction of 100,000 new homes by 2015.

“With our economy teetering on a knife edge, it is not acceptable to protect wasteful current spending at the expense of capital investment and tax cuts that can spur long-term growth,” BCC director general John Longworth added.