Increasing the supply of affordable housing

UKParliament

Hi MSE's

On Thursday 25 June at approximately 1.30pm the House of Lords will be debating increasing the supply of affordable housing.

This debate has been proposed by Lord Whitty.

You will be able to watch live or via catch-up on Parliament TV.

If you would like to find out more here are some documents produced by the House of Commons Library.

Key Issues for the 2015 Parliament
Affordable Rents (England)
Extending home ownership: Government initiatives
Housing Market: Key Economic Indicators
Building the new private rented sector: issues and prospects (England)

What do you think the biggest issues are in increasing the supply of affordable housing?

Lucinda and Jo

Pixie5740

The House of Lords, a parliament where none of the members have been democratically elected.

Stop fiddling with the housing market. Right to Buy. Help to Buy. Just stop. The government's meddling isn't helping.

Browntoa

stop selling council/social housing stock at a discount

offer tenants who want to purchase a large bonded deposit instead

[Deleted User]

It just isn't possible to increase the supply of social housing in a meaningful way by building new stock..,there isn't the money or land available for the needed large scale building.

LA rents could be increased. Housing Associations tend to charge more .., they can let places at affordable rents instead of social housing rent rates, which I assume means more money to build more houses.

Reduce the need for social housing stock by introducing more laws giving tenants more rights to longer leases as standard.., as is happening in other areas of the UK. It happens in Europe, it can be introduced here.

Yes, remove right to buy.., yes harsher penalties for people not using council properties but renting them out privately, yes to employing more people to bring back into use empty properties (it can take two years to compulsory purchase an empty property, giving the owner initially time to do the necessary refurb work himself etc).

More money to encourage tenants living in too large houses to move. At present in my area, its £500, which might just about cover moving costs. Not much of an incentive, and there aren't enough smaller properties for people who could move to transfer to. When I was looking at moving in 1999 you received several thousand pounds, sometimes enough for a deposit on buying a place. It did motivate people to move and is a lot cheaper than building a property.

No doubt that more social housing is needed.., but at this point in time, not easy to do.

Cornucopia

Eco-building on land that is loaned/leased from Government and other large landowners.

An eco-build can cost as little as £40k for materials, £40k for labour (when constructing a number of houses). So if the land costs little or nothing, the resulting rents could be very affordable.

Eco-houses also tend to be faster to build - taking weeks rather than months.

stator

The problem is that house building has been left entirely in the hands of private companies, with housing associations picking up 'scraps' left to them as a result of new developments.
What is needed is a return to the age of council lead building. If the council identifies and compulsory purchases the land it can sell off plots to house builders and make a profit to invest in more house building.
Any other schemes will just be tinkering around at the edges and not help matters.

TrickyDicky101

stator wrote: »

What is needed is a return to the age of council lead building. If the council identifies and compulsory purchases the land it can sell off plots to house builders and make a profit to invest in more house building.

So you're advocating capital confiscation (otherwise known as 'naionalisation' or, more accurately, 'theft') from unlucky landowners?

I like not living under a communist regime so no thank you.

stator

TrickyDicky101 wrote: »

So you're advocating capital confiscation (otherwise known as 'naionalisation' or, more accurately, 'theft') from unlucky landowners?

I like not living under a communist regime so no thank you.

Hah, all countries in the world have a mechanism for compulsory purchase of land required for the greater good. If you really wanted to live in a capitalist country all the farms would go bankrupt anyway since that would mean scrapping the CAP / SFP.

Malmo

The proposed policy to extend Right to Buy to housing association tenants is highly flawed, unfair and will do nothing to help improve the supply of affordable housing. Properties that are sold off will not be replaced one-for-one. It simply won't happen.

Firstly, Housing Associations are private, independent charities. Forcing them to sell their property assets at below market value could potentially breach Article 1, Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which gives everyone the “right to the peaceful enjoyment of one’s possessions”. This includes Housing Associations.

Secondly, HAs hold property as assets in trust for their communities and these assets must be managed responsibly and properly. Disposing of charity assets below market value would be difficult or impossible under Charity Law as charities must get the best deal or approval from the Charity Commission. The law itself and how the commission works would need to be amended.

Stop launching schemes that drive more demand and solve the actual problem - lack of supply.

JencParker

Restrictions on property that can be sold to overseas buyers/companies.


Longer life time leases for tenants in rented property.


Large penalties for property that remains unoccupied for more than 6 months.


No second home discounts - in fact, tax on second homes.

No selling off of council or housing association property.


However, if Right to Buy were to apply then it should apply to ALL rented property.

C_Mababejive

I want HM Government to STOP meddling in the housing market.

I want them to create conditions/legislate to make more land available for housebuilding decent homes,not overpriced shoe boxes


I want Government to change the way social housing queues are prioritised to make length of time on the queue a greater priority over housing need.