The building industry has lambasted the Liberal Democrats’ new housing manifesto pledge.
The Federation of Master Builders (FMB), which represents around 12,000 building companies, said the party’s incentives to bring 250,000 empty homes back into use were welcome but failed to adequately address the urgent need to retrofit existing housing stock to make it greener and more energy efficient.
FMB director of external affairs Brian Berry said a proposal to cut VAT for energy-efficient improvement would have been more welcome and would have helped people struggling to pay energy bills.
The FMB believes the market for retrofitting existing housing stock is worth between £3.5-6.5bn, which could create thousands more jobs in the construction sector.
