The UK’s construction industry has doubled its economic contribution, generating £38bn a year and supporting 689,000 jobs.
The planning and development consultancy Lichfields has just released a new 2018 Economic Footprint report commissioned by the House Builders Federation (HBF) confirming that over the last four years, housebuilding has risen by 74%. Across England and Wales, the current value of the construction sector has reached £38bn per annum and supported 689,000 jobs.
The report highlights the benefits that the building industry has brought to the economy, including a total of £2.7bn in tax revenues, which includes stamp duty, corporation tax, NI and PAYE. Local communities and infrastructure have been boosted by £841m coming from the industry, of which £122m was designated to improving and building new schools.
Developers have invested around £12bn in buying land for new homes and 50,000 more affordable homes have been agreed worth in excess of £4bn made up of 106 different agreed schemes.
Boosting housing supply good news for communities
Lichfields’ last report for the HBF was in 2015 when the housebuilding sector recorded an economic contribution of £19.2bn. The increase in activity has also benefited suppliers with the overall spend now at £11.7bn compared with £5.5bn three years ago. The volume of affordable housing provision is valued at £4bn, almost 50% up on the £2.3bn recorded in 2015.
Stewart Baseley, executive chairman of the HBF, said: “The housebuilding industry is a massive driver of the UK economy and makes a huge contribution to communities across the country. While delivering much-needed new homes of all tenures, housebuilders are quietly creating and sustaining jobs, generating receipts for the exchequer and boosting investment in infrastructure and amenities in villages, towns and cities.
“As well as becoming ever more reliant on private builders to deliver affordable housing through planning agreements, vast sums are ploughed into new roads, schools and community facilities every year.”
“The unprecedented increases in housing supply in recent years have delivered significant benefits for UKPLC and the industry is investing in more land and people to enable it to go further and build more. The industry is calling on the government to work with it to create the policies that will allow it to deliver the government’s ambition of 300k homes a year in England. Delivering more homes will not only help solve our acute housing crisis, but also provide a further boost to communities and economies up and down the country.”
