A tale of two mergers: What do the completion of Barratt-Redrow and the collapse of Bellway-Crest Nicholson mean for Labour’s housebuilding plans?

By Joey Gardiner2024-09-24T12:00:00

Is the ground-breaking tie-up likely to help or hinder the government’s chances of hitting its sky-high 1.5 million housebuilding target?

In the days immediately following the election of the Labour government, major housebuilders were pulled into Downing Street by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, alongside utility firms and infrastructure contractors, to be told of the new government’s ambitions for the sector. Labour wants to see 1.5 million homes built across the parliament – implying an average annual build rate of 300,000, a number that hasn’t been hit even once in over 50 years.

Such is the ambition, housing quango Homes England is “pushing very hard” for partnerships housebuilder Vistry to build 30,000-40,000 units per year, according to Greg Fitzgerald, executive chair of Vistry. If delivered, that would be twice the volume that any UK housebuilder has previously reached.

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