'Cat in hell's chance' housing targets will be met

Leading housebuilders have slammed the government for failing to bail out the housing industry amid warnings building targets will not be met.

Tulloch Homes chief executive David Sutherland said the government’s target to build 240,000 homes this year did not “have a cat in hell’s chance of being met this year or next.”

Housebuilders predict 110,000 homes are likely to be built this year and only 80,000 in 2009.

But they have also warned that government intervention in the form of stamp duty holidays or cuts to interest rates could come too late, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Roger Humber, strategic policy advisor to the House Builder’s Association (HBA), said sales were down 60%.

“No business or industry can survive that,” he told the newspaper.

The HBA said the industry was facing its toughest time since the 1930s.

“We’ve not seen anything like this post-war. It’s essentially a financial crisis, more like 1931 that anything else we’ve seen,” Mr Humber told the BBC.

Housing minister Caroline Flint said she was monitoring the situation.

“We are watching closely to see and listen to different forecasts about what might happen in the next 12 months,” she said.