More than 20,000 jobs and £5.7bn-worth of growth could be generated from investing in housing, according to the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH).
The claim comes as part of a four-point plan the CIH has written to the chancellor, George Osborne, to kick-start housebuilding.
The plan includes:
· A stamp duty holiday for landlords bringing empty homes back into use as rented accommodation;
· Providing certainty for the long-term on affordable housing rent;
· Amending local authority borrowing rules so they can invest more in developing new homes; and
· Increasing the Discretionary Housing Payments budget to £250m per year to support the welfare reform programme.
CIH chief executive, Grainia Long, said: ‘The road to economic recovery is proving rocky at best and the government’s own figures show that housing starts dropped by 11% in 2012, highlighting our inability to build the homes we so desperately need.
‘But ministers have an opportunity to tackle both of these issues at once – these four measures would increase the housing industry’s ability to contribute to our national economic recovery while addressing an increasingly chronic shortage of affordable homes.’