Small house builders and developers in the UK face serious barriers to growth with planning, access to finance and land availability highlighted as the biggest challenges for small companies in research by the NHBC Foundation.

The research shows that there has been a significant decline in the number of small firms active in house building in recent years – halving between 2007 and 2013 - with only 2,710 estimated to have been building last year.

The report ‘Improving the prospects for small house builders and developers’ explored the business environment that small firms are experiencing and captured the views of nearly 500 small house builders and developers. It found that despite encouraging signs of house-building growth in the UK, the early stages of the recovery do not appear to have improved prospects for smaller builders with one-third saying that the planning application process and conditions attached represented a major challenge to their business.

While securing finance was a problem for 22% and a lack of available land is having a negative impact on 14%, the biggest problem by far, affecting 74%, was a shortage of good quality subcontractors and tradesmen.

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Small house builders and developers in the UK face serious barriers to growth with planning, access to finance and land availability highlighted as the biggest challenges for small companies in research by the NHBC Foundation.

The research shows that there has been a significant decline in the number of small firms active in house building in recent years – halving between 2007 and 2013 - with only 2,710 estimated to have been building last year.

The report ‘Improving the prospects for small house builders and developers’ explored the business environment that small firms are experiencing and captured the views of nearly 500 small house builders and developers. It found that despite encouraging signs of house-building growth in the UK, the early stages of the recovery do not appear to have improved prospects for smaller builders with one-third saying that the planning application process and conditions attached represented a major challenge to their business.

While securing finance was a problem for 22% and a lack of available land is having a negative impact on 14%, the biggest problem by far, affecting 74%, was a shortage of good quality subcontractors and tradesmen.

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