Housing plans in Queen's speech positive for UK-listed builders, says Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank has said that announcements made in this week's Queen's Speech regarding the government's focus on housing supply spells good news for UK-listed housebuilders.The bank said highlights of Thursday's speech included the continued promotion of the Help to Buy scheme, reform of the planning system to bring forward locally-led garden cities and new legislation to allow high value government land to be sold. The government also announced the creation of an allowable solutions scheme which gives developers the chance to pay into an environmental fund to offset a scheme's carbon emissions if homes they build do not meet regulations.Deutsche Bank said there was a large focus on "encouraging smaller developers" through plans to reduce planning costs and exemptions from the zero carbon standard.However, "we see as positive for the listed housebuilders particularly given much of it doesn't imply increased competition on the larger (50 unit+) or more complex sites where much of the land buying of the listed players is taking place". The bank said: "With investors questioning how the gap is to be bridged from current housing starts to targeted levels we see this week's update as supportive to our view that an expansion in other tenures of housing (custom build, build to rent etc) are important elements being encouraged."Deutsche Bank has 'buy' ratings for Barratt Developments, Bovis Homes and Taylor Wimpey. Berkeley, Bellway, Persimmon and Redrow are all rated 'hold'.BC