Are new houses really needed ?.

patman99

In the UK there are around 2.5 million empty properties (excluding un-sold new builds).

There are approx. 2 million people requiring a home.

As it costs less to bring an empty house back up to modern standards than it does to build a new house, why are we not encouraging the authorities to bring these houses back into use rather than giving permission for new homes to be constructed.

gazter

Authorities are encouraged. New Homes Bonus, and prior to that, a series of incentives existed that make it financially worth it while.

How many of those two million are genuinely empty, or are just part of a churn?

toastking

A lot of these properties must be owned by private businesses or individuals who would rather sit on it? If I could afford an empty property I'd certainly want to do something with it, but a bizarrely high number of people must be deciding not to bother, not everything thats empty can be without owners and it would only be a building without an owner that would be purely the governments to get up to scratch.

nickj_2

my local council plans to build aroud 10k houses to cope with the demand, where is this demand , it's not from local people as there are only around 50k in the district , the demand comes from people who think they'd like to move here because it's a nice area , the 1/2 million pound houses they are building now aren't going to be much use for people who are paid a pitance

CLAPTON

patman99 wrote: »

In the UK there are around 2.5 million empty properties (excluding un-sold new builds).

There are approx. 2 million people requiring a home.

As it costs less to bring an empty house back up to modern standards than it does to build a new house, why are we not encouraging the authorities to bring these houses back into use rather than giving permission for new homes to be constructed.

could you post a little more detail

like where are they geographically?
what sort of properties; size, condition, ownership
how long have they been unoccupied
etc etc

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

patman99 wrote: »

In the UK there are around 2.5 million empty properties (excluding un-sold new builds).

Source???

Most credible sources I've seen put that number at just 700K, of which only around 300K are empty for longer than 6 months. The rest being empty for temprary reasons such as probate, refurbishment, sale, etc.

And most of the remainder are in the wrong places for current demand.

The 1600 empty houses in Caithness and Sutherland, on the northern tip of Scotland, are of no use to a young family wanting a house in London for example....

Whereas the existing million house shortage is of houses in the right places for current demand, ie, in the places people want to live, of the sizes people need, and where the employment exists to support them.

antrobus

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Source???

Most credible sources I've seen put that number at just 700K, of which only around 300K are empty for longer than 6 months. The rest being empty for temprary reasons such as probate, refurbishment, sale, etc.....

Council Tax Data published on 20 November 2012 put the number of empty homes in England at 710,000. Of these, 259,000 were defined as long-term empty properties (empty for longer than six months) – representing a net reduction of 20,000 (7%) on 2011 figures.

Source: Parliamentary Standard Note: SN/SP/3012

More up-to-date figures suggest;

635,127 empty homes are currently empty in England according to the 2013 Empty Homes Stats!
http://www.emptyhomes.com/statistics-2/empty-homes-statistice-201112/

At the moment, there are around 25,000 long-term empty homes in Scotland

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/supply-demand/emptyhomes

Conclusion: the claim that "In the UK there are around 2.5 million empty properties" is a load of nonsense. The true figure is probably about a third of that.

patman99 wrote: »

...., why are we not encouraging the authorities to bring these houses back into use rather than giving permission for new homes to be constructed.

And what on all this God's Earth makes you think that the authorities are are not already trying to "bring these houses back into use"?

The Welsh Government launched the three year Houses into Homes scheme in April 2012 to help tackle the 23,000 empty homes in Wales.
http://www.wlga.gov.uk/houses-into-homes-scheme

The Scottish Government has launched an Empty Homes Loan Fund to provide loans to organisations to help them renovate empty homes and make tham available as affordable housing. Seventeen projects have been approved for funding and £4.5 million has been offered, an increase over the £4 million originally set for the fund.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/supply-demand/emptyhomes

The government is committed to helping local people bring empty homes back into use....That is why we have: invested £235 million that has the potential to bring over 12,000 problematic empty homes back into use by March 2015,.... given the New Homes Bonus for long-term empty homes brought back into use - since April 2011 local authorities have received over £2.2 billion, recognising delivery of over 550,000 homes, and over 93,000 empty homes being brought back into use

https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/increasing-the-number-of-available-homes/supporting-pages/empty-homes

michaels

antrobus wrote: »

Council Tax Data published on 20 November 2012 put the number of empty homes in England at 710,000. Of these, 259,000 were defined as long-term empty properties (empty for longer than six months) – representing a net reduction of 20,000 (7%) on 2011 figures.

Source: Parliamentary Standard Note: SN/SP/3012

More up-to-date figures suggest;

635,127 empty homes are currently empty in England according to the 2013 Empty Homes Stats!
http://www.emptyhomes.com/statistics-2/empty-homes-statistice-201112/

At the moment, there are around 25,000 long-term empty homes in Scotland

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/supply-demand/emptyhomes

Conclusion: the claim that "In the UK there are around 2.5 million empty properties" is a load of nonsense. The true figure is probably about a third of that.



And what on all this God's Earth makes you think that the authorities are are not already trying to "bring these houses back into use"?

The Welsh Government launched the three year Houses into Homes scheme in April 2012 to help tackle the 23,000 empty homes in Wales.
http://www.wlga.gov.uk/houses-into-homes-scheme

The Scottish Government has launched an Empty Homes Loan Fund to provide loans to organisations to help them renovate empty homes and make tham available as affordable housing. Seventeen projects have been approved for funding and £4.5 million has been offered, an increase over the £4 million originally set for the fund.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/supply-demand/emptyhomes

The government is committed to helping local people bring empty homes back into use....That is why we have: invested £235 million that has the potential to bring over 12,000 problematic empty homes back into use by March 2015,.... given the New Homes Bonus for long-term empty homes brought back into use - since April 2011 local authorities have received over £2.2 billion, recognising delivery of over 550,000 homes, and over 93,000 empty homes being brought back into use

https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/increasing-the-number-of-available-homes/supporting-pages/empty-homes

There you go again - letting the facts get in the way of a good rant.

michaels

nickj wrote: »

my local council plans to build aroud 10k houses to cope with the demand, where is this demand , it's not from local people as there are only around 50k in the district , the demand comes from people who think they'd like to move here because it's a nice area , the 1/2 million pound houses they are building now aren't going to be much use for people who are paid a pitance

Great news for the locals, council tax up by 20% plus as well as any construction related jobs in the short term in the long term more jobs for the local hair dressers, gardeners, doctors, opticians, teachers, estate agents etc etc sounds like a big win for your area and at 500k apiece you are hadly looking at an influx of benefits dependents.

PasturesNew

Many are holiday homes. There was a story about one elderly woman who was the only resident in her entire block of flats most of the year.... a few weeks of the year the others were rented out as holiday lets... but most of the time she had the whole building to herself.

I think she moved out after a few years, probably wasn't the "dream of making friends and living in a community" she expected....

http://metro.co.uk/2008/02/13/life-of-luxury-for-only-resident-627912/

... a block of 30 new flats where she is the only permanent resident. .... said weeks can go by without her seeing another resident and even when people do visit it is only for a couple of days.... “Sometimes I don’t see people for weeks. I have the whole place to myself.”

CLAPTON

nickj wrote: »

my local council plans to build aroud 10k houses to cope with the demand, where is this demand , it's not from local people as there are only around 50k in the district , the demand comes from people who think they'd like to move here because it's a nice area , the 1/2 million pound houses they are building now aren't going to be much use for people who are paid a pitance

fair enough

obviously new homes should always be built elsewhere