Newsnight: Housing shortage the biggest social justice crisis of our times

Wookster

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

Why the need to incentivise with additional cash / levies?

I think they don't need to incentivise. Its another BS scheme from this government.

Interestingly, it was pointed out that most house building before the mid 70s was done by the state and since the state stopped, house building has slowed incredibly.

ruggedtoast

Boomers? I will have to watch this and be indignant on the iplayer tonight.

CLAPTON

It would seem strange that builders would build lots of new houses in areas of no demand.


New developments have to pay infrastrure and affordable housing levys either directly to the council or by building new 'affordable homes' and/or infrastructure (say a school, doctors surgery, playing area, road etc etc.).
What the council does with the money of course is up to them.

Of course levys aren't actually paid by developers, they are paid partly by the buyers of new properties and partly by building fewer properties as the levys make new home too expensive.


We don't specifically need 'affordable' homes, we need homes for people to live in. If there are sufficient homes then prices will fall and so we will have more 'affordable homes'. The current 'affordable homes' levy in fact reduces the overall number of homes built and so reduces the number of 'affordable' homes (whatever that means).

We need to get rid of the levys and make house cheaper and
introduce a land value tax to make holding building land more available.

Then let market forces decide what sort of home are built.

Graham_Devon

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Boomers? I will have to watch this and be indignant on the iplayer tonight.

You'll find him standing in a field moaning about some vague points.

PaulF81

Top article in the in the telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/hands-off-our-land/9792040/Planning-threat-to-grandparents.html

ruggedtoast

PaulF81 wrote: »

Top article in the in the telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/hands-off-our-land/9792040/Planning-threat-to-grandparents.html

It is “immoral” that young people are being priced out of the housing market because of a lack of cheap homes, Nick Boles told The Daily Telegraph. The housing shortage is a bigger threat to “social justice” than poor education and unemployment, he said.
In a speech on Thursday, Mr Boles will say that greenfield land must be built on. He will announce a scheme that will enable communities to receive funding for new facilities if they agree to support new housing developments.
By setting out the moral arguments for new development, his language marks a significant hardening in the tone of the Government’s attacks on “Nimbys”. It also shows the frustration among ministers that reform of the planning system has not sparked a building boom.

This is bad news for NIMBYs and equity hoarders. Looks like the coalition are serious about building and affordable housing.

Not serious enough to like, actually build council housing, but certainly serious enough to introduce a raft of public spending that will end up in the pockets of civil servants and builders.

You cant have everything though.

PaulF81

We don't need council houses. We need new build plots without huge fees to help pay for Chantelle and her 5 brats affordable housing. No planning density requirement, just a way for decent people to build decent family homes affordably.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

It also shows the frustration among ministers that reform of the planning system has not sparked a building boom.

Idiots.

We already have 2 millions lots with planning permission.

It's not a shortage of lots with planning permission that is causing the current lowest building levels for 100 years, it's a shortage of mortgages and development funding.

Builders wont build what they cant sell.

PaulF81

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Idiots.

We already have 2 millions lots with planning permission.

It's not a shortage of lots with planning permission that is causing the current lowest building levels for 100 years, it's a shortage of mortgages and development funding.

Builders wont build what they cant sell.

They could sell them if they cut the price.

If the government issued pp with a 2 year lifespan with the. Understanding that the land would not get granted pp under the same ownership after that, I bet there wouldn't be a problem.

More self build is te way forward and keeps money in the local economy.

coastline

Wookster wrote: »

I think they don't need to incentivise. Its another BS scheme from this government.

Interestingly, it was pointed out that most house building before the mid 70s was done by the state and since the state stopped, house building has slowed incredibly.

Post war period over one million homes were built mostly Council homes...as many were destroyed during the War.
Again around 1960 onwards ??...there was another phase commonly known as slum clearance..rows and rows of terraced homes were pulled down..

Not that many years ago you could get a Council mortgage from you local town hall...why can't our politicians kick start a scheme with the brown field sites which they say can house half the problem..