Housing, infrastructure, apprenticeships and first time buyers are the big winners in the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s 2018 Autumn Budget.

The final Budget before the UK departs the European Union was unveiled to parliament last month. Here are 4 things the construction industry should take away from Phillip Hammond’s statement:

Apprentices

To help small businesses that train apprentices, the Chancellor will halve the contribution that they make to the apprenticeship levy. The amount will be reduced from 10% to 5%.

First time buyers

During the 2017 Autumn Budget, Stamp Duty was abolished for first time buyers purchasing a property valued up to £300,000, and the Chancellor revealed 121,500 recipients have already benefited from the policy change.

To help boost housing supply further, Stamp Duty relief will be extended to all first time buyers of shared ownership properties valued up to £500,000.

Infrastructure

Hammond has pledged to deliver the largest ever strategic roads investment package worth £28.8 billion from 2020-25. Early beneficiaries of the funding, include: the York Outer Ring Road, the modernising of Gallows Corner in East London, the farmyard bottleneck on the Grizebeck Bypass near Barrow in Furness, the A614 near Ollerton in Nottinghamshire and new slip roads in Thurrock.

Housing

It was no surprise to see the Housing Revenue Account cap scrapped from 29 October 2018, giving councils across England greater financial powers to fund a programme of house building. The new measures will support the delivery of up to 10,000 new homes each year.

The Chancellor also increased the Housing Infrastructure Fund by a further £500 million to a total of £5.5 billion, enabling up to 650,000 new homes to be built.

And up to £1 billion of lending guarantees will be made available to SME house builders by the British Business Bank.

The Chancellor’s latest round of financial stimuli will provide further support on the Government’s commitment to achieve house building rates of 300,000 new homes per year by the mid-2020s and deliver the homes needed to tackle the housing crisis – as reported in our blog: ‘New homes, infrastructure and skills are the order of the day’.

At M. Lambe Construction we are already helping the Midlands’ leading house builders deliver the new homes and infrastructure the UK desperately needs, and they are very happy with our dedication.

• Andrew Kielthy, Contracts Manager, St Modwen Homes, said of our commitment to the project: “Thank you for your hard work in helping us achieve our targets on the Meon Vale scheme. You have gone above and beyond to support St Modwen Homes and the site team. I have to admit that what has happened at Meon Vale over the past 3 months has been astonishing, a credit to you and your teams. Please pass on my gratitude.”
• Simon Hudson, Construction Director, Bellway Homes, also said: “Thank you for your contribution and support over the last twelve months enabling Bellway South Midlands to deliver an exceptional result in our first financial year. Through your hard work and commitment this volume has not been at the expense of quality, noted in two of our site managers receiving NHBC ‘Pride in the Job Awards’. Thank you.

So, if you’d like to work with an award winning civil engineering and groundworks specialist with a ‘can do attitude’ and ‘right first time’ approach, fill out the contact form below or call us on 0121 554 2108 to talk with one of our experts.