A shortage of housing ?? Over 750,000 are empty

Heyman_2

I guess it all comes back to money but I'd really love to know the motivations people have to keep a perfectly habitable house or flat empty, when there is supposedly such a shortage.

Unhabitable houses, I can understand, because obviously it costs money to bring them up to the required standard - money which some LLs just won't have.

Maybe the margins for new developments are much greater than redevelopment of older property, from a Contractors point of view???

chopperharris

The future for these types of properties is to comp purch.If the govt plc wants a quick fast way out of debt , and the future unemployemnt level lowered , then they could do worse than using up these dormant places.

I have seen victorian buildings like mills reclaimed , they werent cheap to do despite even being sold for £1 to the developer.Afterwards because they werent in "classy" areas they were simpky unable to be sold....despite the wishes and projections that they would do so easily.

However there are other options , using them as social housing as much as stated , or for first step immigrant communites.But doing this means exclusion , which isnt exactly a good thing , unless you want to breed negative reactions and fester hate.The locals would say "how come these spongers get better housing than we do" , despite not wanting these places themselves but all to previously.

It is not cheap and easy to retrofit/maintain these properties , despite what some folk believe , or should that be we emotionally wish.They have to hit standards for living today , that could mean costing more than building anew .They were poorly built in most cases by todays standards , some dont even have true founds , they slip , they're damp , and cramped...ironically though some will be bigger internally than an equivalent new build of the same square footage.

I agree though they are usually charming , a diamond of architecture are most of them , a building history that should be kept...but at what cost?IF they were not sold but given away to communites projects , employing the long term community unemployed to basically build their own house , that could never be sold at a profit then surely this also is another option?How about safe disabled communal sheltered housing , or elderly communites?

Driving past these places , like others do , I always shake my head.But if there really was a downright true need for housing then would they be empty at all?The generalisation is that every govt wants mortgage slaves , not "social housing" , even that term you cant tell me isnt used as a stigma detterent,Building new is a way to keep the economy perked , well it was until recently.

Liverpool , which has been discussed here , should have used these empties ready for the culture crap , assuming that its the council that own them ....not simply put new knickers on an old tart and painted the boards.These could , and should have , been sold at £1 each to those that have never owned , with the precedence that they could never be sold on any higher , with a standard of upkeep kept as a condition of ownership....ie basically a 50 year leashold.The cost to upgrade them would be a fraction of even buying a second hand luxury static caravan....even more so if whole terraces contracted out the work en masse for discounts.

Sorry if you dont like a big post , my thoughts on this are as you can see expansive and long termed.Its something I feel very strongly about.I grew up in these areas and watched coucil bulldoze rather than sell off , it was too expensive to keep them up to grade , and tbh there was no demand for "council houses" in towns where traditional industry like mining and shipyards declined.

Towns/cities bulldozed the previous building types of "back to back" and room'n kitchens to go forward , replacing them with these "better" victorian terraces.By todays standards they are considered the same as those that they replaced , therefore will most likely suffer the fate in kind.I dont think that its essentially the best option , but those that make the decisions do , and until such time as we as individuals can force change then they will do as they see fit.

shame on us for electing them and expecting them to do the best for us in the first place.

penguine

Heyman wrote: »

I guess it all comes back to money but I'd really love to know the motivations people have to keep a perfectly habitable house or flat empty, when there is supposedly such a shortage.

Unhabitable houses, I can understand, because obviously it costs money to bring them up to the required standard - money which some LLs just won't have.

Maybe the margins for new developments are much greater than redevelopment of older property, from a Contractors point of view???

Part of the problem is that VAT is charged on refurbishing an existing house, but not on building something new from scratch. So the government is effectively giving builders an incentive to knock down an existing property and build a new one.

neverdespairgirl

brixham wrote: »

I was at university in Liverpool 1992/3 and I can remember some of the Edge Lane area being boarded up at that time.Also can remember Old Swan area being even worse.

There must be some more historical reason for these areas decline than recent events.

Yes. Liverpool was a huge and wealthy city, and the decline came very fast.

Like many others, my father's father moved to Liverpool from north Wales. If you came from a poor, agricultural family, as he did, Liverpool was the great draw. My mother's parents also moved to the city. Both my parents, and 3 of my grandparents, were born in or around Liverpool - the city itself, Wallasey, and Birkenhead. However, only 1 of my great-grandparents was born there, the rest migrated to the metropolis.

I don't have a single relative left in Merseyside, that I know of. They all left. And they weren't the only ones. After the docks stopped, almsot overnight, Liverpool's economy fell off a cliff. My grandparents ended their days in Surrey and Sussex, my parents live in London, my uncles live in London and Sussex, and my second cousins live in Scotland, Kent, Sussex and Italy. All born there, all left.

Many of my parents' friends left as well - they aren't in contact with any school friends who still live there.