Chancellor Philip Hammond’s housing market measures in the Autumn Statement have been welcomed – but were seen as not going far enough to ease the homes crisis in cities like Bristol.
Martin Blake, pictured right, director of Keynsham-based estate agency Andrews’ land & new homes division, approved of the commitment to release £1.4bn for 40,000 additional affordable homes. 
“Any amount of additional affordable housing should be welcomed, especially given the total number of these homes being built in recent years has been low and is yet to meet the levels we witnessed seven or eight years ago,” he said.
“Putting a local perspective on this, however, it should be noted that in the city of Bristol alone there are more than 9,000 people on the waiting list who meet the criteria for affordable housing – and that’s just in the city, not the wider area which spreads in to South Gloucestershire.
“So, if a relatively small city like Bristol could easily absorb almost a quarter of what the Chancellor is proposing, it just serves to highlight what a drop in the ocean this announcement is.”
Paul Butterworth, pictured below, head of housing at Bristol-headquartered law firm TLT, also gave a cautious welcome to the measures.
He said: “The government has recognised that housing is a key part of the UK’s infrastructure. Therefore £2.3bn housing infrastructure monies and £1.4bn of grant to be released for housing will be cautiously welcomed if it provides the catalyst to deliver the badly needed additional affordable new homes estimated by these initiatives.
“The housing white paper to focus on structural housing deficiency in the UK will be interesting to see what is proposed to deal with this issue, where other governments have failed.”
Tim Davis, pictured below, head of property agency Cushman & Wakefield’s Bristol Office, said the Autumn Statement recognised that housing supply and affordability was a huge issue.
“The commitment to support affordable housing is to be welcomed but only computes to £35,000 per house and an ‘average house’ costs circa £75,000 build,” he added.
“While the challenge to the public sector is to actually identify and release land for housing development within sensible timeframes.” 
Andrews group chief executive David Westgate agreed with the move, saying: “We, of course, welcome transparency around fees and honesty in terms of cost vs margins and have witnessed some outrageous charges by others within the industry.
“It is essential that the interests of all parties – tenants, landlords and agents alike – are protected and to this end we would welcome the opportunity to get involved in the consultation process that will manage the way this change is handled.”
