RIBA president Ben Derbyshire has given his backing to measures in the Autumn Budget designed to boost the architecture and construction sectors and deliver new homes.

But he warned that chancellor Philip Hammond’s cash-and-tax-breaks package would not counterbalance the “grave consequences” of the UK leaving the European Union without a proper Brexit deal in March next year.

Hammond yesterday announced an immediate end to the cap on council borrowing that restricts local authorities’ use of Housing Revenue Account funds to deliver new housing, a commercial sector-focused tax break to deliver capital relief on new non-residential buildings, and a £675m fund to reshape high streets for the 21st century.

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