ARL response to the Budget 2025

“Despite our repeated calls this year for the Government to ‘pull the Build to Rent lever’ to deliver the additional, good quality new homes in such great demand, the absence of direct support for the Build to Rent sector in today’s Budget is disappointing.

“The Build to Rent sector has now delivered over 132,190 new homes, an uplift of 14% nationally year on year, as reported by Savills, but it has the potential to deliver 2,000,000 additional new homes – a meaningful contribution to addressing the national housing crisis.

“Viability however remains a real issue for the Build to Rent sector. A triumvirate of stubbornly high development costs, convoluted planning processes and an increasingly demanding regulatory environment is slowing construction. The Government has not yet grasped how, from an investor’s perspective, to make the UK a more attractive destination, and to make housing, and in turn Build to Rent, an attractive sector to invest in.

“The Government fails to recognise that planning, building control and the Building Safety Act are viewed as one substantial hurdle by the investment community and this is where fiscal resource and regulatory coordination is required to attract the private capital required and that is ready to be deployed.”

Brendan Geraghty
CEO, Association for Rental Living