Government must do more on affordable housing

Graham_Devon

The government needs to act now to make sure enough affordable homes are being built, campaign groups have said, after figures showed the number of housing starts in England fell 11% in 2012.

Housing charity Shelter said the government faced a "housing crisis" unless immediate action was taken.

The National Housing Federation also said more needed to be done to meet the huge demand for affordable homes.

A spokesperson for the government said ministers were "far from complacent".

The Home Builders Federation said it was "still a challenging environment" in which to build homes.

"A lack of mortgage finance is the most important short-term issue and if buyers can't buy, builders can't build.

"But we have seen a much more positive start to the new year with an easing in lending and schemes like the government's NewBuy enabling people to get a 95% mortgage," the group said.

Quite annoying that the whole "it's the lenders fault" is appearing in the media. It's far more than that. How did builders cope before the boom of the last decade!?

Just 98,000 houses were built in 2012.

A study of barrats FTBs has for the first time stated lack of housing is their biggest problem and not mortgage finance.

A study from house builder Barratt of 2,275 home buyers across Britain, showed shortage of property not financing was now the single biggest barrier for house hunters, with just 5% saying finding a property is easy. A third of respondents had been looking for a home for six months.

ILW

15 years ago the builders managed to make good profits building houses and selling them at a quarter or third of what they want now. That would equate to land prices having risen around 10 times or more. Is this the case?

PaulF81

No, but the money milked off the builders to keep t' great unwashed in social housing can't be written off.

grizzly1911

PaulF81 wrote: »

No, but the money milked off the builders to keep t' great unwashed in social housing can't be written off.

Do you have any data to show how that works?

Do they give x number of houses away per development for free or do they simply lose some of the margin on said properties?

PaulF81

grizzly1911 wrote: »

Do you have any data to show how that works?

Do they give x number of houses away per development for free or do they simply lose some of the margin on said properties?

I have had a colleague at work who has had to 'donate' 50k to his local council to self build his own home. I expect there was a ratio under labour, lets hope the Tories rip it up with their planning changes.

shortchanged_2

PaulF81 wrote: »

I have had a colleague at work who has had to 'donate' 50k to his local council to self build his own home. I expect there was a ratio under labour, lets hope the Tories rip it up with their planning changes.

Is this actually legal or is it bribery?

coastline

ILW wrote: »

15 years ago the builders managed to make good profits building houses and selling them at a quarter or third of what they want now. That would equate to land prices having risen around 10 times or more. Is this the case?

PaulF81

shortchanged wrote: »

Is this actually legal or is it bribery?

Fully legal.

http://www.homebuilding.co.uk/advice/project-tips/planning-permission/affordable-housing-contribution

Turnbull2000

We'll only get a substantial rise in house building if land and planning are reformed. Neither will happen. Too many influential groups would oppose it.

I'm afraid the only 'fix' we'll get for the housing market will be looser lending for first-time buyers.

Generali

The fault lies with people not the Government.

Start a rumour in your local pub that the council is considering allowing a developer to build 1,000 houses on the crappiest bit of land in you locale and watch the anger rise. Then tell people that you think it might be 1,000 council houses.

If people don't want house built it's very difficult to build them. The Government is trying to do something about it by removing some of the appeals process but there's little they can do to go completely against what people want as they'll get voted out and the reforms reversed.

Graham_Devon

Generali wrote: »

The fault lies with people not the Government.

Start a rumour in your local pub that the council is considering allowing a developer to build 1,000 houses on the crappiest bit of land in you locale and watch the anger rise. Then tell people that you think it might be 1,000 council houses.

If people don't want house built it's very difficult to build them. The Government is trying to do something about it by removing some of the appeals process but there's little they can do to go completely against what people want as they'll get voted out and the reforms reversed.

The Eastleigh by-election is actually being fought on stopping house building in the area.

Who's the one promising to fight against house building? You couldn't make it up. Grant Shapps.

He said Mr Clegg cannot claim to be sticking up for the environment when the Liberal Democrats are supporting plans to put up to 5,000 houses on Eastleigh’s countryside. Mr Clegg has personally said he makes "no apology" for the housing proposals and Mike Thornton, the local Liberal Democrat candidate, has admitted voting for the development plans.

“Nick Clegg has pushed the Lib Dem campaign into turmoil," Mr Shapps said. "He says he makes ‘no apology’ for planning to concrete over Eastleigh's countryside. His candidate says ‘we have to use green spaces’. And yet the Liberal Democrat campaign promises to ‘protect our precious green spaces and countryside’.

"If the Lib Dems have any respect for Eastleigh voters, then Nick Clegg must explain his Party's misleading campaign."