Why don't people allow necessary houses to be build?

moneyistooshorttomention

missbiggles1 wrote: »

As a small country we need to get away from the idea that living in a house is the aim and living in a flat is only a temporary stop en route to that. In most other European countries (often with far more space than the UK) apartment living is much more common, whether you're a young couple, a family or a retired person.

That's the only way we're going to square the circle of providing more homes but leaving ourselves some space in which to enjoy life.

Which is all well and good - but the thing is most of us want detached houses anyway and there are many people currently unhappy enough at having to make do with a terrace or semi-detached.

Flats have communal maintenance problems/service charges and suffer much more from noise. That before you add in that many of them don't have gardens. If those problems could be solved - then maybe more people would be willing to live in them by choice. Until then - the vast majority of us will continue with our view that "You can if you like - but I'm not going to do so".

It really doesn't matter what size our country is. The fact is that there are too many people living in it. If we had the correct number of people here then there wouldn't be this problem in the first place.

DRP

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Which is all well and good - but the thing is most of us want detached houses anyway and there are many people currently unhappy enough at having to make do with a terrace or semi-detached.

Flats have communal maintenance problems/service charges and suffer much more from noise. That before you add in that many of them don't have gardens. If those problems could be solved - then maybe more people would be willing to live in them by choice. Until then - the vast majority of us will continue with our view that "You can if you like - but I'm not going to do so".

It really doesn't matter what size our country is. The fact is that there are too many people living in it. If we had the correct number of people here then there wouldn't be this problem in the first place.

On a person [per square metre basis, I don't agree there are too many people living here. If they are here to work (which the vast majority are doing), then their taxes should be improving the infrastructure - if that's not happening , then that is the fault of the government and other leaders...


Your point about the domestic profile of other countries is interesting - i wonder what they complain about on their version of MSE forum?! (if they are not house buying / selling and those countries are more used to the renting game )

Doozergirl

varghesejim wrote: »

I am a priced out serial renter.

Referring to this link:

http://www.dorkingandleatherheadadvertiser.co.uk/Campaigners-launch-bid-prevent-500-homes-built/story-26337537-detail/story.html

People protesting allotments to be replaced with homes.

There may be many reasons to protest against a development. But the matter of fact is we are in short of homes. We need to build homes where it can be build with least environmental impact.

In this case 100 allotments have to be replaced with 500 homes. And the council will get 21 million from the developer. The council will reallocate the allotments elsewhere in the area. Looks like win-win situation all the way except an inconvenience to allotment holders.

The council received 30 letters against the development from this campaign. Not even a single letter for the development from the many hundreds of unfortunate souls who don't have a home in the area. Granted, they might not be able to buy from the same development, but more homes will generally keep the prices to manageable levels so that people will get a chance to buy.

I think there need to be a campaign from first time buyers to apply pressure for more building of homes. Importantly voices need to be heard from non-home owners in government in such scenarios where there is protest against new development.

We want to build a highly sustainable home (passive house for any Grand Designs fans) for ourselves on an acknowledged piece of brownfield land. The pre-app shows that it meets all the design criteria and will not affect anyone's amenity, and it will only be seen by four houses. The planning officer says that it doesn't fit with the character of the area because some houses have long back gardens and they will be minded to reject it.

In the meantime, proposals are in the pipeline for hundreds of houses on greenfield and they are building over allotments as we speak. I'm not sure if they've relocated any allotments, they nearly already border greenbelt, but for one field (also planned for development).

Our application went in last week but I don't think it's been registered yet (they'd screw up their eight week targets if they registered them when they arrive!) If anyone fancies being vocal about the need to build sustainable homes in sustainable locations, we'd be most grateful of the support on our application!

varghesejim

ringo_24601 wrote: »

I find it laughable that you might think house prices would go down if we built more homes

I don't know your reasoning for saying that, but my thinking is that house prices are dictated by a simple equation of demand and supply.

varghesejim

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Build more new towns, rather than 'fill in the gaps' between the current ones.

Building more towns where? In a brownfield site? You have to get rid a lot of green space to build a town.

It is much more efficient and green to find suitable places in existing towns, isn't it? People just need be a bit more considerate to fellow human beings and understand dreams are not a monopoly for the people who was born early.

leveller2911

The problem many rural communities face is that developers don't want to build the type of houses the area needs. They want to build 4 and 5 bedroom houses and we need 2-3 bedroom low cost housing for the young people of the area. Many developers are like locusts, they turn up cause havoc whilst building expensive 4-5 bedroom detached houses for wealthy people from London and then they run off with their profit.

The local communities gain little from many developments so its not surprising they don't want them built. Build the houses we actually ned and many people would be in favour. The South East in particular is seeing ever increasing problems with congestion on the roads, pressure on the water services and sewage problems etc from too many houses and not enough investment on the infrastructure.

SnooksNJ

maninthestreet wrote: »

Why don't we address the causes of the increased demand for housing - like immigration???

There are more British Expats living in my country of birth and you don't hear me complaining about a housing crisis.

maninthestreet

SnooksNJ wrote: »

There are more British Expats living in my country of birth and you don't hear me complaining about a housing crisis.

More British Expats than where???

moneyistooshorttomention

maninthestreet wrote: »

More British Expats than where???

.Snooks - ..and is your country as overcrowded as ours is?

maninthestreet

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

...and is your country as overcrowded as ours is?

We are both in the UK, though Wales is certainly not as densely populated as England.