Housing Minister Defends First Homes Scheme Price Caps And Outlines Developer Support

The government has defended its two-tier price cap system for its First Homes scheme and confirmed that it would not provide additional financial support to property developers to support the scheme. The minister of state for housing Christopher Pincher said that it was important that price caps provided “clarity and consistency” to support consumers, developers, and mortgage lenders, which its current system did. He said its current price cap system, which states after the discount properties should be priced at no higher that £250,000 or £420,000 in Greater London, would ensure that at least 25 per cent of properties purchased by first-time buyers in England and Greater London would be included. Read more on the Mortgage Solutions website.

https://www.mortgagesolutions.co.uk/news/2021/07/15/housing-minister-defends-first-homes-scheme-price-caps-and-outlines-developer-support/

 

Property Developers Gave Tories £891,000 In First Quarter Of 2021

 Labour has accused the Conservative party of “selling out communities to pay back developers” after figures revealed that 13% of the Tories’ recent donations came from property tycoons and companies. Labour’s analysis of declarations released by the Electoral Commission show the firms gave £891,984 to Tory central office and eight local associations – a sizeable chunk of the £6,418,295 the party reported receiving in the first three months of 2021. It comes as the government prepares to launch sweeping changes to the planning system that Labour says will remove communities’ right to object to inappropriate individual developments in their area. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jun/11/property-developers-gave-tories-891000-in-first-quarter-of-2021

Building Safety Fund (2) – Parliamentary Written Answer

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Government plans to recoup the costs of the Building Safety Fund from residential property developers.

Christopher Pincher: as announced on 10 February 2021, we are going to introduce a developer levy through the Building Safety Bill to be targeted and applied when developers seek permission to develop certain high-rise buildings in England. In addition, we will introduce a new tax for the UK residential property development sector in 2022. The levy and tax will ensure that the largest property developers make a fair contribution to the remediation programme. The Government will consult on the policy design of the tax in due course.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2021-02-11/153224

Building Safety Fund (1) – Parliamentary Written Answer

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Government plans to recoup the costs of the Building Safety Fund from residential property developers.

Christopher Pincher: The Building Safety Fund should not be the only means of funding the remediation of unsafe cladding on high-rise residential buildings. Building owners should meet the costs without passing them on to leaseholders wherever possible, through their own resources or by recovering costs from applicable warranty schemes or from the developers or contractors who were responsible for the installation of unsafe cladding, as is happening with more than half of the private sector buildings with ACM cladding. Applicants to the Building Safety Fund are required to demonstrate that they have taken all reasonable steps to recover the costs of replacing the unsafe cladding from those responsible.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2021-02-11/153224

Cladding Tax Is ‘Laughable’, Says Property Developer

Taxing developers to help pay for cladding remediation work is “laughable” the chair of a development firm has said. Andrew Southern, chair of developer Southern Grove, has criticised the government’s plan to introduce a new development levy in an attempt to alleviate the crisis that has seen thousands of leaseholders hit with extortionate bills to rectify historic issues with their buildings. Mr Southern said: “Why should a company that has never installed dangerous cladding, and perhaps never built high-rise blocks in the past, be tarred with the same brush and penalised when they’re no more responsible for this scandal than those in other sectors building cars, running our hospitals and educating our children?” Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/cladding-tax-is-laughable-says-property-developer-69500?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Social Rented Housing: Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to encourage housing developers to build more council and other forms of social housing.

Christopher Pincher: The new Affordable Homes Programme will deliver more than double the number of homes for social rent than the current programme, with around 32,000 social rent homes due to be delivered. We are reforming the planning system and have set out our ambition that the new Infrastructure Levy will raise more than the existing system of developer contributions, and deliver at least as much onsite affordable housing. We propose that local authorities should be able to specify the forms and tenures of onsite provision, working with a nominated affordable housing provider.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2021-01-26/143833 

Developers Yet To Seek Planning Permission For More Than A Million Homes

More than a million homes on land earmarked for development by councils are yet to be brought forward by developers for planning permission, new research by the Local Government Association suggests. These are homes on sites which do not yet have planning permission but have formally been identified as suitable for housing by local councils through the local plan process. Local plans are a set of planning policies drawn up by councils, which allocate the number of homes to be built in local areas in consultation with local communities. Read more on the LGA website.

https://www.local.gov.uk/developers-yet-seek-planning-permission-more-million-earmarked-homes-lga-research

Developers Will Be Able To Build Estates Of 50 Homes Without Any Affordable Housing

Developers will be able to build estates of 50 homes without setting any aside for affordable housing under the Government’s controversial planning reforms, a coalition of charities has warned. In a letter to the Telegraph, the chief executives of Shelter and CPRE, the countryside charity, argue that the plans should be scrapped because they do not deliver the type of housing that “communities are crying out for". Research has shown that in rural and affluent areas, affordable housing could fall by half under the proposals put forward by ministers last month. Read more on Yahoo News.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/planners-able-build-estates-50-160359417.html?guccounter=1

Developers Swamp Council With 'Horrendous' Number Of Housing Proposals

A council has been swamped with new housing proposals from opportunistic developers. About 9,000 sites have been put forward for development in South Staffordshire – with a large swathe bordering the Black Country. But Brian Edwards MBE, leader of South Staffordshire District Council, claims this number is 10 times too many. He says council planners face a "horrendous" task sorting out which developments are most suitable. And he accused developers of "scaremongering" residents in the process. It comes after the local authority identified a shortfall of 8,845 homes needed within the district by 2037. Read more on the Express & Star website.

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/property/2019/12/11/developers-swamp-council-with-horrendous-number-of-housing-proposals/

New Guidance Launched To Help Unlock Land For Homes

A guide on how investors and developers can secure a share of a multi-million-pound fund to help unlock land for homes and jobs is due to be launched by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA). Building the Future – a guide to the combined authority’s Single Commissioning Framework sets out what developers can do to win funding earmarked by the WMCA to re-commence stalled developments across the region. The guide is aimed at making the process for securing finance clearer and easier and will see the WMCA working with developers to find ways for the schemes to support the authority’s “key economic and social goals”. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/new-guidance-launched-to-help-unlock-land-for-homes/

Communities Get Clear Sight Of How Councils Spend Developer Cash

Councils will be required to report on the total amount of funding received from housing developers and how it was spent. A reformed Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) accounts for every pound of property developers’ cash, levied on new buildings. Builders already have to pay up for roads, schools, GP surgeries, and parkland needed when local communities expand. In 2016/17 alone they paid £6bn toward local infrastructure. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/communities-get-clear-sight-of-how-councils-spend-developer-cash/

Developer Contributions To Be Made Simpler, Says Malthouse,

Housing minister Kit Malthouse has announced changes to developer contributions to make the system simpler and accelerate the pace of homebuilding. Builders pay through developer contributions (section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy [CIL]) for the roads, schools, GP surgeries and parkland needed to help areas to cope with new residents. But Malthouse said these measures are “confusing and unnecessarily over-complicated”. The new rules mean that communities would know exactly how much developers are paying for infrastructure in their area, he explained. Councils will be required to report the deals done with developers and set how the money will be spent, so residents can see every step taken to make sure that their area is ready for new housing. Read more on the Planning Portal.

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/news/article/640/planning_news_-_13_june_2019?utm_source=PPQ+Newsletter&utm_campaign=3034f4b39f-Newsletter_18042019_HTML_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_734e0b63a9-3034f4b39f-7266185#one

Minister Hits Out At UK Property Firms Over £200m Cladding Bailout

The behaviour of some of Britain’s biggest property owners has been criticised as morally indefensible by the government after ministers were forced to launch a £200m taxpayer bailout to fix combustible Grenfell-style cladding on private residential towers. James Brokenshire, the housing secretary, announced he was diverting public money to make safe about 20,000 high-rise homes, in an embarrassing defeat for the government after a months-long standoff with property firms where many refused to pay. Brokenshire’s plan immediately ran into internal opposition when Melanie Dawes, his most senior civil servant, said it was bad value for money for the taxpayer and regressively diverted money to richer parts of the population Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/may/09/minister-hits-out-uk-property-owners-cladding-bailout-grenfell

Help To Buy Price Difference Is Rising

The difference in the price paid by first time buyers for new build homes with Help to Buy, compared to the price paid by those buying new homes without the scheme has increased. New research shows that the price difference increased to 12% in January and February this year compared with 8% in October 2018. The study from ReallyMoving says that this could be because developers are charging a premium for homes for sale through Help to Buy and warns that the property may not be worth what the buyer paid for it, when they come to sell. Read more on the Property Wire website.

https://www.propertywire.com/news/uk/help-to-buy-price-difference-is-rising-new-study-shows/

Developers Have Used A Legal Loophole To Dodge Building 10,000 Affordable Homes

Developers have dodged providing more than 10,000 affordable homes due to the government’s failure to close a loophole in the law. Using ‘permitted development rights’, builders have sidestepped their duty to provide affordable homes when they convert non-residential buildings like office blocks. The rules were designed to speed up the planning process, as they allow developers to transform a property without having to apply for town halls’ planning permission – something which could see council chiefs demand social housing as part of planning conditions. A Shelter analysis shows that 10,340 affordable homes have been lost over the last three years in England as a result. Read more on the Huff Post website.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/exclusive-legal-loophole-let-developers-dodge-building-10000-affordable-homes_uk_5c0a5b6ee4b0de79357bc719?guccounter=1&guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvLnVrLw&guce_referrer_cs=ui8UWkGixenym8oUoZYVyw

Rule Changes 'Risk New Social Housing Black Hole' In England

A proposal designed to speed up the creation of new homes in England risks “supercharging” a get-out clause allowing developers to build properties without providing social housing, the charity Shelter has said. The government has proposed new rules that would allow builders to buy and demolish commercial buildings and create new homes without planning permission. The plan would extend permitted development rights, which allow the conversion of office buildings to homes. The rules have also allowed developers to build tiny homes, some as small as 13 sq metres. Almost one in 10 new homes created last year were created this way. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/13/government-rules-risk-black-hole-in-social-housing-affordable-homes

Developers Hog Land For Record 130,000 Homes

Developers are sitting on land for more than 130,000 homes in England that have never been built – the worst gap on record, according to new analysis. The record gap between planning permissions granted and new homes being built has led to calls for tough new penalties to be enforced against developers that sit on land rather than build. North-west England and London had the worst gaps, with only 50% of new homes being built where planning permission had been obtained between 2012 and 2017. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/oct/25/developers-hog-land-for-record-130000-homes-analysis-reveals

£1 Billion Housing Delivery Fund Launched

Housing Secretary James Brokenshire has announced a partnership with Barclays Bank to provide £1 billion of loan finance to help support small and medium sized developers, speeding up the delivery of thousands of new homes. Support, ranging between £5 million to £100 million, will be available to developers who are able to demonstrate experience and commitment to building excellent new homes, with a track record of delivering challenging projects on time and to target. The Housing Delivery Fund will support the delivery of new homes, including social housing, retirement living and apartments for rent, whilst also encouraging greater innovation on how housing is delivered such as brownfield land and urban regeneration projects. Read more on the Homes England website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/1-billion-housing-delivery-fund-launched-by-brokenshire-in-partnership-with-barclays

Buy-To-Let Has Skewed Housing Market And Must Be Curbed

Private landlords have put home ownership beyond the reach of at least 2 million families, research shows, while Britain has built only half as many new homes as France over the same period. The radical report from the new Conservative thinktank Onward recommends ending or severely curtailing tax breaks for buy-to-let and private landlords, a stronger role for local councils and major reform of the planning system to allow communities rather than developers to lead the process. The report calls for government intervention in the housing market, including giving London councils the power to limit foreign ownership. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jun/25/home-ownership-out-of-reach-for-2-million-uk-families-says-thinktank

Councils ‘Help Transform’ The Future For Private Rented Sector

A new report on investment in the Private Rented Sector (PRS) opens channels for councils, developers and investors to work alongside each other on a new generation of private rented housing. The report highlights the need for dedicated vehicles to now accelerate the delivery of private rented family housing.  The report; ‘How local authorities can foster investment by corporate landlords in new private rental housing’, prepared by university professors, Tony Crook and Peter A. Kemp, states that councils are ideally placed to create a modern, private rental offering by working closely with investors and developers. Read more on 24housing.

http://www.24housing.co.uk/news/councils-help-transform-the-future-for-private-rented-sector/