John Stewart is Director of Economic Affairs at the Home Builders Federation (HBF).
His policy responsibilities include the economy, the housing and mortgage markets, mortgage regulation, NewBuy, demographic trends, housing supply, Affordable Housing, new home valuation, the private rented sector, customer satisfaction and the industry's Consumer Code, the Cumulative Impact of Regulation on viability and supply and Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) initiatives (FirstBuy, Get Britain Building, public land disposal). He maintains close contact with a wide range of housing experts, including officials at the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG), the HCA, HM Treasury and the Bank of England.
Before joining HBF in 2003 he was an independent housing consultant for over ten years, and previously divisional Sales & Marketing Director for house builder Wates. His publications included a monthly Viewpoint column in Housebuilder and Building a Crisis (2002) which highlighted the growing housing supply crisis in England and began to consider its social and economic consequences.
He has an MA in English from Auckland University and an MSc in Economics from Birkbeck College, London.
Home building at centre of economic recovery strategy
Before the 2010 general election, private home building looked set to be a victim of localism under a Conservative government. Today home building is centre stage in the coalition government's strategy for economic recovery. John Stewart charts the change in government attitude to the industry.
Testing the deliverability of Local Plans
Viability testing of Local Plans presents local authorities with major challenges. But, argues John Stewart, it is essential to preparing deliverable plans.
Housebuilding to drive economic recovery
Falling construction output has dragged Britain into a double-dip recession. John Stewart looks at prospects for a government housebuilding package to pull the economy out of trouble.
Solving the housing crisis requires radical solutions
England's rapidly worsening housing supply crisis cannot be solved without restoring market mechanisms, argues John Stewart, and this will require radical policy changes
Comfort thinking distracts from solving housing crisis
Having listened to innumerable wel-lintentioned round table discussions about Britain's housing crisis, John Stewart has concluded many housing experts suffer from a form of self delusion which distracts them from facing up to difficult issues
New homes pick up in early 2012
Recent positive trends in new home sales and private housebuilding activity should be supported by FirstBuy and NewBuy, says John Stewart. While several economic indicators provide tentative evidence of a wider improvement in consumer demand.
“Different ways of building for different customers"
In the second of two articles on the mediumterm outlook for home builders, John Stewart argues that the much more diversified nature of supply and demand to emerge over the past decade will continue to define the industry's future
Medium term outlook challenges the industry
In the first of two articles, John Stewart charts the unprecedented market and policy conditions the industry has survived since 2007 and looks to an uncertain economic future
Deregulation actions yet to match intentions
The government has yet to make any significant reductions in the national regulatory burden on home building, despite good intentions, says John Stewart, while localism has made it even more difficult to reduce the onerous local regulatory burden
Home building to drive economic recovery
The government has introduced a raft of measures to help home building play a central role in driving Britain's economic recovery. But success will require the government to resist pressure from antidevelopment groups who are seeking to water down its planning reforms.
