<p><span>SME housebuilders have delivered a letter to the prime minister today (July 6), urging for action to save their businesses with a survey revealing that 78% of smaller builders are considering scaling back residential construction.</span></p> <p><span>The letter to government, signed by almost 200 firms, stresses that the government’s increasingly anti-development policy stance is posing “existential threats” to the survival of their businesses. </span></p> <p><span>Signatories of the letter warn that blocks on development, including a “collapsing planning process”, threaten to decimate a growing number of firms in the upcoming months and years. The firms point out that there are an estimated 85% fewer small housebuilders than a generation ago; the barriers small builders face today are greater than ever before, according to the letter.</span></p> <p><span>A survey of more than 200 SMEs shows, according to the Home Builders Federation (HBF), that 87% are contemplating a change in business direction, while 78% are thinking of scaling back activities.</span></p> <p><span>HBF stressed that SME housebuilders were critical to the housebuilding industry, playing a key role in the sector’s ability to deliver much needed housing amidst a worsening housing crisis. With their often regional focus, HBF said that SMEs commonly targeted smaller sites and were actively …