A leading land and planning expert has said the North West house building industry shows no signs of slowing down - despite the devastating effects of coronavirus on various sectors.
Rachael Ainscough, managing director of Ainscough Strategic Land, which delivers consented sites to housebuilders, said the "long game" that governs the property development cycle is keeping the house-building industry going through the current crisis.
The need for housebuilders to ensure that they have a sufficiently robust pipeline on a three to five-year horizon means that deal flow is continuing, generating work for a wide range of professions.
Ms Ainscough said current activity is showing no signs of slowing down, despite the temporary inconvenience of re-organising teams to work remotely.
She explained: “We have a number of acquisitions and disposals progressing with lawyers at the moment because, come what may, the industry has to be ready to push on when restrictions are lifted.
“Our place in the property cycle can cope with physical dislocation thanks to technology, so we can keep cracking on,” she added, confirming that all the Leigh-based Ainscough team are now working from home.
But, she said, government needs to play its part to ensure consumers are "ready to go" when restrictions are lifted – and that means extending the timeframe for Help to Buy.
The current Help to Buy scheme will require properties being sold using this scheme to be built by December this year, whilst the new Help to Buy scheme running to 2023 is more limiting on who qualifies based on regional caps on loan-to-value ratios and is only applicable to first time buyers.
Ms Ainscough added: “Those purchasers using the current scheme may well not be in a position to complete on their houses if the build is not completed in time, due to the anticipated slowdown in construction between now and then. It is clear the transition period from the current scheme to the new scheme needs extending.
"We need government to signal this now so that consumers and the industry can factor this into their planning. Not to do so will cause a logjam that will inevitably take months to unclog. If government takes the right decisions now, we could avoid that issue.”
Ainscough says that PLC housebuilders and others with the resources remain ‘firmly in the market’, seeking consented sites as before.
She added: “The biggest short-term issue affecting us directly is planning committees being delayed, perhaps even temporarily closing down. One hopes for a technological solution such as virtual committee meeting, which could facilitate proper democratic scrutiny whilst allowing business to be conducted as close to normal as possible."
