Maria Miller MP, Vice-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Excellence in the Built Environment, helps launch the APPGs 4th Inquiry today (16th November 2015). Evidence sessions are being held in Parliament to examine the Quality of New Build Housing in England and the potential for improving every aspect of the product handed over to new home-owners.

A wide range of organisations have been invited to submit evidence, some of these have been invited to attend open sessions of the APPG to present their evidence in more detail and to answer questions from Commission members. Following these open sessions, the Commission will report to the APPG, which will hold a final open meeting, after which the findings of the Inquiry will be presented to Brandon Lewis MP, the Minister of State for Housing and Planning and the Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

This subject is of special significance in light of the government’s recently-published National Productivity Plan, which includes the ambition to build more than one million homes in England by 2020.

Maria said: ‘Basingstoke has built more houses than almost any other part of the U.K. over the last two decades. We know that the quality of house building is variable. I have been deeply concerned by the stories of a number of local residents who have contacted me about the problems that they have faced with the quality of their newly built homes. Buying a new home is the biggest purchase any of us will ever make and it is important that developers consistently deliver the quality of the new build houses that we all expect. I am glad that we are working to find a way to resolve these issues with the APPG and hope that in the longer term we can ensure that house builders are held accountable and deliver good quality new build housing."