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Developer welcomes housing minister’s call for greater investment in PRS

The housing minister’s call this week for significantly more homes “of every single type” to be built, including significantly more homes for rent to help meet high levels of demand for housing, has been warmly welcomed by the chief executive of Quintain.

Speaking earlier this week at Property Week’s RESI conference in Newport, Gavin Barwell said that the necessary volume of new housing will “never be achieved” in the UK without significant investment in the private rented sector (PRS).

The MP for Croydon Central commended the recent “impressive” growth in the bespoke rental market but insisted that this “progress must be expanded” to help ensure that there is a “thriving private rented sector”.

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With the number of people living in the PRS continuing to grow, Barwell pointed to the increasingly important role that the build to rent sector will play in providing the many more homes that are so urgently needed.

“I welcome Gavin Barwell’s comments made earlier this week at the RESI conference and agree that build to rent can play a critically important role in delivering the high quality and affordable homes which are needed across the country to meet Britain’s housing needs,” said Quintain’s Angus Dodd.

“The sector is still immature in the UK but the focus the industry has on the technical and design aspects of build to rent developments and the appetite of investors and lenders to finance schemes means it is growing up fast,” he added.

The housebuilder insists that the planning process remains the biggest barrier to the delivery of significantly more new build homes for sale or rent in this country, and is now calling on the government to do more to streamline the planning process, particularly with tighter rules around the consultation process, enabling developers to speed up delivery of new homes.

He continued: “We believe that build to rent schemes usually contribute directly to the supply of affordable housing and that should be taken into account when S106 affordable housing provisions are agreed.

“We’d also like to see local authorities use their existing powers to give developers greater flexibility to adapt the interiors of their properties for build to rent, such as variable unit sizes and taking account of common amenities.” 

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