Yahoo Finance I was wrong about Brexit, admits boss of housebuilder Crest Nicholson
The boss of UK housebuilding firm Crest Nicholson says he got it wrong over Brexit.
Stephen Stone said growing employment and the “reasonably robust” economy has seen him revise his downbeat view of what would happen after the vote to leave the European Union.
He told the BBC’s Wake Up To Money show: “I was very concerned about the impact that might have on the economy so we stopped buying land for a period which is why we ended up with more cash on the balance sheet at the end of that year than we might have done.
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“But it’s fair to say I got that wrong and a lot of other people now accept they’ve got that wrong – the economy is proving to be reasonably robust, we’re still seeing high levels of employment, low interest rates and they’re the factors that are supporting the new build housing market.”
Crest Nicholson has been building homes in the UK for more than 50 years and builds about 3,000 properties a year.
Theresa May’s government has challenged the industry to build 1 million new homes by 2020 to ease what has been described as a housing crisis facing the UK.
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Stone said that builders were “on track” to deliver on that target.
“The industry is working very hard and it’s not just the speculative housebuilders,” he said. “There’s also a contribution from the affordable housing side and they are playing their part so it is a joined up effort from everyone that is involved in new homebuilding.”
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There have been reports the industry is short of brickies, carpenters and electricians – and Brexit has been blamed for driving a lot of foreign labour away from the industry.
However, Stone said: “More planning consents are coming through and I think one of my fears is that we might lose a lot of labour through Brexit – we’re certainly not seeing that happening so the people are there to keep building for us.”
