Budget: Hammond must invest extra in infrastructure to unlock homes, Javid says

Communities secretary Sajid Javid has called on the Chancellor to undertake additional borrowing in order to ”invest in the infrastructure that leads to more housing”.

He said in a BBC interview that with historically low interest rates, Philip Hammond could afford to increase borrowing in his 25th November Budget in order to unlock more house building through transport and other infrastructure, suggesting that 250,000 to 300,000 homes a year were needed to address the housing crisis — significantly more than the 164,000 completed in 2015/16. He said: “Like anything else, when you don’t have enough of something but the demand keeps rising, you see the prices rise.”

Marr had asked him about speculation that there would be a new fund to support house building  he said: “Borrowing can help, and not just with the housing itself but one of the big issues is infrastructure investment that is needed alongside the housing.” He added: “It’s the biggest barrier to social progress in our country.” But he declined to say whether or not Hammond was supportive, saying: “Let’s wait and see what happens in the Budget.”