00:00Since these plans have been announced, we've been told that the government will help to
00:06subsidise development to the tune of three billion, only to run hard up against the fact
00:12that a, there are not sufficient trades available in the country to build that many homes in
00:18the time frame, which is a fundamental problem, as I'm sure you'll appreciate, but secondly,
00:25we've seen a decline in the number of residential sales compared to last year.
00:31So the problem is, is where is the market for these one and a half million homes?
00:35Who is going to buy them?
00:38We're still in the middle of an affordability crisis, I would argue.
00:41Interest rates have not fallen as fast as anybody would like.
00:44I mean, building on greenbelt, or what they now describe as greybelt, disused or unusable
00:51farmland or areas of natural beauty.
00:53I can understand that.
00:56The problem you have, frankly, is if you look deep into the golden rules, 50% of these homes
01:03are going to be affordable.
01:06They have to be in any development.
01:08So you're building 50% affordable homes on a disused car park, 15 miles outside a city
01:14centre.
01:16How are the people who are in those affordable homes, whether they own them or rent them,
01:21going to get to the jobs that they have to do?
01:26You should be building housing where the employment opportunities are.
01:30It's been reported that the head of Britain's largest house building company has said Labour's
01:35plans to build 1.5 million homes during this parliament is not achievable due to a severe
01:41skills shortage.
01:42When asked by the BBC, Barrett Redrow chief executive David Thomas said that the government
01:48would have to revolutionise the market, revolutionise planning, revolutionise methods of production
01:55to make their target achievable.
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