Housing Shortage Worsening - Another million homes needed in just 10 years....

wotsthat

Graham_Devon wrote: »

As you know far better than everyone else. Could you tell me how axing plots (real world example) sits hand in hand with your theory that there isn't enough planning permission available?

You may well have contributed to the Lyons Review. But that doesn't nullify the findings of the collective contributors. What I quoted was one of the findings of said review. That doesn;t mean I know less than I think I do. It just means that's one of the conclusions of the review - like it or not.

The finding of the review and your real world example aren't related. It's a confirmation bias.

Have a think about it. If I'm a builder drip feeding houses to keep prices high wouldn't it be much more cost effective to limit the number of sites rather than constantly opening sites and then mothballing parts of them?

cells

Home builders have hit out at the "myth" of land banking by unveiling figures showing just four per cent of their land is still awaiting a start on site.

The Home Builders Federation (HBF) looked at 220,000 plots held in the land banks of the 23 major companies. This revealed that:

• 63% are on sites where construction is under way
• 31% are either on sites with only an outline permission or where building is awaiting councils to discharge planning conditions
• 4% of plots have an implementable planning permission but work has yet to begin
• 2% are on sites not being developed because they are not economically viable.

"When you look beyond the rhetoric and the lazy accusations, the facts are quite clear: house builders do not hoard land or landbank unnecessarily," said HBF executive chairman Stewart Baseley. "The debate really needs to be about how we get the land in the planning system through more quickly to build the homes we need and not about myths."

The HBF said there are currently around 185,000 potential homes in the planning system. Finding a way of getting them built more quickly "must be a priority for the government".

missbiggles1

CLAPTON wrote: »

I add this as an anecdotal but true statement.

Chatting to a MD of a smallish midlands based construction firm, he told me they are constrained only by labour.

They had plenty of demand, plenty of land, materials were available (brick shortage much exaggerated), enough funding but skilled labour was the problem.

His view was that too many retired or found alternative work after 2007/8 and there were very few new entrants and no training.

May not apply elsewhere and I have no idea how widespread the problem is.

As an employer, surely training should be his responsibility, at least in part?

CLAPTON

missbiggles1 wrote: »

As an employer, surely training should be his responsibility, at least in part?

were you an employer in the period 2007 -2013?

if you have to choose between making people redundant and training new people which would you do?

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Still no sign of house building increasing to the levels required.

Crashy_Time

Do you think they will need more or less houses in Aberdeen in the coming years Hamish? :money:

westernpromise

I'm not persuaded that fundamentals like future housing needs in the UK generally have a lot of bearing on house prices - any more than local salaries do. London houses in particular are driven by international salaries.

If you want to know what London house prices are doing next look at what is happening in China, Singapore, and New York. It is the same marginal buyer setting prices in each case.

CLAPTON

westernpromise wrote: »

I'm not persuaded that fundamentals like future housing needs in the UK generally have a lot of bearing on house prices - any more than local salaries do. London houses in particular are driven by international salaries.

If you want to know what London house prices are doing next look at what is happening in China, Singapore, and New York. It is the same marginal buyer setting prices in each case.

it's not clear that prices in Tottenham are much affected by what is happening in China

Crashy_Time

CLAPTON wrote: »

it's not clear that prices in Tottenham are much affected by what is happening in China

Or prices in Aberdeen by how many brightly coloured graphs you can post on the internet......?

daveyjp

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Still no sign of house building increasing to the levels required.

Just seen an architect friend. He doesn't expect housebuilders to suddenly increase output to any more than 2-3 completions a month per site, which it has been for years.

The market is dominated by a few players, they are making excellent money, profits are good, market is rising.

Why put more stock onto the market? It needs more capital employed, it needs more labour, it uses land banks which need replacing incurring acquisition and planning costs and it doesn't give developers time to recoup all up front costs from higher prices later in the development phase.