MPs have stated that Chancellor Phillip Hammond’s plans to tackle the housing crisis will completely fail unless there are further reforms.
The centre piece of Mr Hammond’s November budget was to abolish stamp duty on homes under £300,000.
Since then, the government has said that they’ve already helped over 16,000 people get on the property ladder.
However, the Treasury select committee have said that the move is very likely to further increase house prices by at least the amount of the reduction in stamp duty is actually supposed to save.
It also said that Mr Hammond would only meet his target of 300,000 new homes a year, if he becomes more hands on in regards to promote building, for example, lifting a borrowing cap on councils.
“Greater measures are needed to increase housing supply,” the committee’s report states. “300,000 homes a year will not be achieved with the current measures.
“The government will need to show greater commitment to housing supply to achieve its aspiration and will need to bring forward additional policy measures.”
Local Government Association Chairman, Lord Porter, responded to the report.
“It is great that the influential Treasury Select Committee has backed our call for councils to be given the freedom to borrow to build more of the new homes our communities desperately need,” Porter said.
“This is significant recognition of our central argument about the vital role councils must play in solving our housing shortage.”
