Richard Bacon MP shared an update to his Bacon Review at NaCSBA’s House of Commons Gold Partners reception on 10 July, two years on from its initial publication.
Sponsored by Ecology Building Society, the reception was an opportunity for NaCSBA’s Gold Partners to hear from a range of speakers, including Housing Minister Rachel Maclean, as well as Richard Bacon, NaCSBA CEO Peter Johns and Ecology Building Society’s Chief Executive Gareth Griffiths.
In his review update, House Extension 2023 Bacon reviews his six recommendations for government, with updates on what’s happened to date, and what remains to be done.
The original review dealt with the challenge of scaling up custom and self build, identifying the sector as a missing market in the UK. In the review update Bacon stands by his recommendations to help achieve this goal, reiterating his call for government to step up to make the changes necessary to support growth.
Last year’s reception was attended by the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Michael Gove MP, who also stressed government’s support for custom and self build.
“At the heart of the challenge remains the failure to put the customer at the heart of the new build process. We have created a “market” where housebuilders compete for land rather than on the quality of the homes that they build; perpetuated in part by an overstretched and under-resourced planning system. The consequences are stark. Quite simply, new housing is feared. In no other time in our history would housing be thought of as pollution. To change this, we need to create the conditions in which customers are treated as if they matter the most, rather than – for the most part – scarcely mattering at all.
“The solutions are there, as set out in my Report. We do not need to find them, only to deliver them.”
