A Budget for Growth?

After the seismic impact of the disastrous Truss/Kwarteng mini budget, no one would blame the latest Prime Minister and his Chancellor for presenting a more sedate, safer plan. That is not to say that Jeremy Hunt’s budget this week was without its headline-grabbing giveaways – the childcare funding arrangements were very much welcome, even if the consequences of costing for these are yet to be fully understood. But for a budget that its author says is a Budget for Growth, it was surprising to see the property and development sector almost entirely forgotten.

Whatever happened to ‘build back better’?

We all know that the country is facing a housing crisis: consistent under-delivery, a shrinking private rental sector, a cumbersome planning system, and cost of living crisis, are all creating what can only be described as a perfect storm. And these are only a few of the factors affecting growth.

The Budget was not entirely silent on regeneration, with the Conservative’s flagship policy of levelling up lingering on with an announcement on new Investment Zones – albeit a tamer version of what has been announced previously.

Levelling Up is a laudable policy that should definitely feature as part of a growth plan for the Country. But yet again, when discussing levelling up the focus is on areas outside London – the implication being that London and the South East are doing fine thanks. But ask anyone trying to get on the housing ladder in London and they’ll tell you otherwise.

The new Investment Zones are designed to act as incubators for start-up businesses, particularly with a focus on the sciences, the thought process seemingly being that if you increase employment opportunities in the North and The Midlands then more people will be able to live and work there. Thereby helping to reduce the pressure on housing in London and the South East. But this ignores the fact that there is a crippling affordability factor remaining for those people that London and the South East cannot afford to lose – keyworkers and the service industry for instance.

Without policy changes designed to expediate housing delivery it is hard to see how growth can truly happen. Yes, we know that changes to the planning system are on the horizon, although that horizon seems to be forever moving and the longer we wait, the deeper the crisis becomes.

Arguably Jeremy hunt missed a trick on Wednesday. Far from his first true budget being a Budget for Growth, it was a plan full of platitudes that failed to acknowledge the importance of the built environment for the Country’s future.