How do we stop the building of the current influx of !!!!!! new housing

Doglover88

It amazes me why we need to build so many new houses, especially in and around the South East of England. The 'average' family size has dropped from the traditional '2.4 children' to I think 1.7, and it certainly cant be because more poeple are choosing to live alone due to the costs, so why do we need thousands and thousands of new houses?

Alan_M_2

No I don't want it all built on, but I would like to make use of land that is laying vacant and being paid for by the tax payer to lay vacant when it could be used for housing stock.

Lets just consider the ramification of there currently being 90% undeveloped land in the UK. If we allowed say 5% more development to solve the building and housing shortage, that would be an increase of 50% on existing building, solve any problem that may exist about lack of housing, and propbably devalue housing as a result of availablity (which is the real reason it's not being allowed).

85% of the country would remain undeveloped.

Sure, you don't want to see it developed, infact you were so worried about it being developed you moved to Spain, hold on, we're paying for all the construction there too through EU subsidies, as Spain isn't technically yet a 1st World country, or wasn't when the subsidies when through.

Effectively, the "There isn't the room" argument is mute and irrelevant, becuse it simply isn't true, there are political and financial motivations alone restricting planning permission.

Doglover88

Guy_Montag wrote:

c. 90% of the land in the UK is green & pleasant - unbuilt on. We're no-where near using up our finite resource.

And it should stay that way.

A_Nice_Englishman

glenbat wrote:

It amazes me why we need to build so many new houses, especially in and around the South East of England. The 'average' family size has dropped from the traditional '2.4 children' to I think 1.7, and it certainly cant be because more poeple are choosing to live alone due to the costs, so why do we need thousands and thousands of new houses?

See posts 11 and 12 in this thread. Lots more people are living alone and even more are expected to do so in the future.

prudryden

glenbat wrote:

It amazes me why we need to build so many new houses, especially in and around the South East of England. The 'average' family size has dropped from the traditional '2.4 children' to I think 1.7, and it certainly cant be because more poeple are choosing to live alone due to the costs, so why do we need thousands and thousands of new houses?

I think it is around 2.3 average family size. Population is @60,500,000 = 26,304,347. There is @26,000,000 dwellings of which 70% (18m)( Gov't statistics) is owner occupied. Looks like a fine balancing act at the moment.

Guy_Montag

seven-day-weekend wrote:

So? Do we want it all built on? I for one certainly don't!

I seem to remember you don't live in this country any more. So really it's not up you is it?

movieman

Do we want it all built on? I for one certainly don't!

Then buy it. But stop trying to use the government to force the vast majority of the population into tiny houses that few people would accept in most first-world nations... why shouldn't people be able to buy a piece of land and build a house on it?

Lots more people are living alone and even more are expected to do so in the future.

And, um, how many people can afford to buy a house on a single salary these days? On the one hand we get told that house prices are high because both members of a couple are working so they can afford to pay more for a mortgage, on the other we get told that prices are high because there are lots of people living alone... it's difficult for both of those explanations to be true.

seven-day-weekend

Guy_Montag wrote:

I seem to remember you don't live in this country any more. So really it's not up you is it?

It is still my country, I can still vote in Parliamentary elections, I still have a house in the UK (lived in by my son), my husband still pays taxes to the UK, and one day we'll come back again.

So yes, it is up to me.

noyk

I like this debate, it is very pertinent at the moment i feel. Have a read of the pdf link below, a very informative paper on housing myths, why and how they have propagated and some "possible" solutions.

excerpt -

The Myths of the Planning System

How has this situation come about? In a country that was
among the first to roll back the government’s role in the
economy, why do we still plan our housing in the way we
do? And why do we accept the outcomes of this system,
which forces us to live in crowded, old, small and expensive
housing of a type we do not want?

http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/images/libimages/143.pdf

The question is, with so many hurdles in our way !!!!!! can we do about it - most people just accept bad housing, i really don't want to.

lynzpower

The renovation of inner cities has to be one of the best things thats happened over the last 10 years. Brownfield sites regenerated- Manchester is a prime exmple, there was lots of scrap & derelict land old mills & what not now all converted into housing. I live in a flat on a reused site in london- its the norm here really.

I think there is too little movement around the larger house area- this is my guess. I know on my grandparents road in a leafy commuter belt in Cheshire - they are all older people.Very little movement on the road of people moving in- the young ish families on the road are there as they moved in as someone died. the whole of the rds near my grandparents are the same. no one moves out til they die effectively. So theres a whole rd of 70 year old single people predominantly, but some older couples abut one family out of 40 houses, all houses are 4 bed. these are the sort of houses the OP finds old ugly- personally id give my eyeteeth for one. the area being what it is, people are now selling off thier gardens to have flats developed on them- it was on trevor mcdonald.

I think this is a shame, but my grandparents arnt going to move- til lthey have to. Nor will anyone else. So almost a whole area is swathed with older people in huge houses, when they probably all COULD live in a 1 bed flat, but they have 4 bed houses.

Thus- if you want to buy a 4 bed house round there- prices through the roof-rare as rocking horse poo.