FMB urges Chancellor to act on £11.2bn of stalled home improvements in Wednesday's Budget

The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) has called on the Chancellor to use Wednesday's Budget to back homeowners and small building firms, saying a lack of confidence in builders is costing the economy £11.2bn a year.

The trade body said one in five (19%) homeowners have put off work on their home because they could not find a builder they trust, according to research it carried out with the HomeOwners Alliance. An FMB Scotland release on 22 October framed the figure as homeowners who had delayed work in the last five years.

Much of the delayed work is not cosmetic, the FMB said. More than a quarter (27%) of homeowners doing building work were upgrading electrics, plumbing or heating to keep their homes safe, and separate FMB research found 49% of homeowners would tackle structural work, such as knocking down a wall, themselves rather than hire a professional.

Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the Federation of Master Builders, said: "With moving home out of reach for many families, more people want to improve the homes they already live in, but too many are being held back."

The five asks

The FMB wants the Chancellor to simplify and extend VAT relief where home improvements include energy-efficiency measures. In a 23 October release on the South of England, the FMB said the VAT zero rate on measures such as insulation, heat pumps and solar panels runs out next March.

HM Revenue & Customs guidance on GOV.UK states that the temporary zero rate of VAT on domestic electricity in Great Britain has effect from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027, with VAT remaining at 5% on all other types of domestic fuel UK-wide.

The FMB is also asking for a Licence to Build for domestic building companies, setting minimum standards of competence, with mediation before disputes escalate to an Ombudsman. It wants funding for support services that reduce the administration and financial risk of taking on an apprentice, a UK-wide network of Build Academies, more capacity in local authority planning teams and a review of what it called unnecessary application requirements and costs.

Berry said: "Many of the measures we are calling for come at little cost to the Treasury."

Background

The release is the national element of a run of FMB pre-Budget statements. The FMB's Scotland release noted that VAT is set at Westminster, so the Budget applies directly to Scottish homeowners, and its South of England release warned that billions of pounds of home improvement work were being delayed in the region.

The asks repeat those in the FMB's formal submission for the Autumn Budget 2026, published on 9 September, which called for mandatory licensing of domestic building companies to set minimum competency standards and for a UK-wide network of Build Academies.

The FMB described the £11.2bn and 19% figures as new. The HomeOwners Alliance, however, published both the 19% figure and the £11.2bn-a-year figure for domestic building projects held up by a lack of confidence in a post updated on 30 April 2026. Neither organisation's pages state the sample size, pollster or fieldwork dates for the survey behind the figures.

The HomeOwners Alliance's joint research with the FMB also found 82% of UK homeowners would be willing to pay more for licensed builders. The FMB published its Licence to Build model on 20 May 2025, proposing an industry-funded approach proportionate to business size and risk, and said 81% of homeowners and 86% of builders back a mandatory scheme.

The FMB said the construction industry is bracing for a downturn, with home repair, maintenance and improvement work forecast to take the biggest hit, and that more than half of aspiring first-time buyers believe they will never get on the property ladder.

HM Treasury has confirmed the Chancellor of the Exchequer will present Budget 2026 to Parliament on Wednesday 28 October 2026.