Gove To Push Homebuilding In The North Of England

Michael Gove will instruct his Levelling Up department to boost homebuilding in the north of England, after widespread concerns that previous proposals could see development targeted overwhelmingly in the south. Gove, the new levelling up secretary, has been given the task of overhauling controversial plans set out in a white paper last year, which have widely been seen as tipping the balance of power in favour of developers and away from local objectors. The prime minister is determined to press ahead with boosting housing development on brownfield sites, including in the south. But it is understood Gove will significantly water down the reforms. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/oct/06/michael-gove-to-push-homebuilding-in-the-north-of-england 

Housing Association Housebuilding Completions Drop By Fifth

 The number of homes built by housing associations fell by almost a fifth in the 2020/21 financial year due in part to the pandemic. Data collated by the NHF showed that approximately 44,000 homes of all tenures were started in 2020/21, with 38,200 completed. In terms of homes built, housing associations completed 4,240 social rent homes, a decline of 13% on 2020. Affordable rental home completions fell by 19% to 16,038 and affordable homes for sale fell by 19% to 11,959. Total affordable home completions stood at 32,237 a drop of 18%. Market rent completions stood at 1,095 during the year, a drop of 12%, and market sale homes dropped 19% to 4,910. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/housing-association-housebuilding-completions-drop-by-fifth-72715

Housebuilding Growth Rate ‘Slowest For 15 Months’

The rate of growth in housebuilding work fell to its lowest level last month since the height of the coronavirus pandemic in May 2020, as materials and labour shortages continue to bite. According to the latest construction purchasing managers’ index from IHS Markit and CIPS, the housebuilding industry recorded a score of 55 – still above the “50” mark that denotes growth – but the lowest level seen since the industry was effectively temporarily shut down in spring last year. This is also the first time that the housebuilding industry has recorded an index score of less than 60 since February this year. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/housebuilding-growth-rate-slowest-for-15-months/5113568.article 

Johnson’s Planning Laws An ‘Utter Disaster’, Say Countryside Campaigners

A dramatic loosening of planning laws to create a housebuilding boom will damage local democracy and destroy swathes of countryside by granting property developers a freer hand to build over green fields, planning experts have warned. The new laws, part of the government’s “Project Speed” to accelerate infrastructure projects, are intended to increase the number of homes being planned by more than a third. But critics described them as “an utter disaster” which would return the country to “a deregulated dark age of development”. Read more on the Guardian website.

Johnson’s planning laws an ‘utter disaster’, say countryside campaigners | Queen's speech | The Guardian 

Housing: Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer

Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent estimate he has made of the number of homes needed to be built per year to meet demand.

Christopher Pincher: The Government is committed to building one million homes over the course of the Parliament, and in 2019/20 net additions to the housing stock totalled 243,770 – the highest total for over thirty years. The Government recently published a revised standard method for calculating local housing need which is used by Local Planning Authorities in planning for the housing needs in their area.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2021-03-19/172050 

Councils Hit Out At Government’s ‘Unrealistic’ New Planning Formula

Councils across England have hit out at the government’s new planning algorithm after analysis found that cities will need to increase development collectively by more than 70% if they are to meet the revised housing need numbers. Local authorities most affected by the changes to the planning formula have said that the government’s plans are “unrealistic” and “flawed”, with some councils being expected to increase housebuilding within their boundaries by more than 200%. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/councils-hit-out-at-governments-unrealistic-new-planning-formula-69616#:~:text=Councils%20hit%20out%20at%20government's%20'unrealistic'%20new%20planning%20formula,-News24.02.21&text=Councils%20across%20England%20have%20hit,the%20revised%20housing%20need%20numbers 

Covid-19 Hinders Government Hitting 'Ambitious' Target For New Homes

Covid-19 has knocked the government further off course from its housebuilding targets, a study has revealed, with only 94,000 new homes built during the first nine months of 2020. The first wave of coronavirus led to the temporary closure of construction sites last spring, leaving output well below the 300,000 new homes a year which the Conservatives pledged in their manifesto, according to research by the Resolution Foundation thinktank. The government aims to deliver a million new homes by the end of the parliament, a target the Foundation described as “highly ambitious” even before the pandemic. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/02/covid-19-hinders-government-hitting-ambitious-target-for-new-homes

Construction Material Shortages Could Delay UK Housebuilding

A growing shortage of key construction materials could delay housebuilding this year as builders fight for fresh supplies against a backdrop of coronavirus-related challenges and price increases. One builders’ merchant said they were being given an August delivery date for roofing materials, such as pitched roof tiles, compared with a usual three-month wait because, even with extra shifts, UK factories were struggling to keep up. The industry also continues to be affected by shortages of power tools, screws and fixings, stemming from congestion at UK ports. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jan/26/construction-material-shortages-could-delay-uk-housebuilding 

UK Builders Are Set To Deliver Fewer New Houses Due To Ongoing Pandemic

House building drops by a third with constructors blaming local authorities for delaying the projects more than the pandemic does. The latest news states that builders will deliver fewer new constructions by the end of the year amid the COVID-19 pandemic and escalating tensions between the local authorities and contractors. With only a few weeks of this year to go, UK’s seven largest house constructors have revealed that construction completions are down, with 35% fewer properties built compared to the previous year. Read more on the MKFM website.

https://www.mkfm.com/news/news-extra/uk-builders-are-set-to-deliver-fewer-new-houses-due-to-ongoing-pandemic/

Tory Councillors In Revolt Over Plans To Accelerate Housebuilding

A growing rebellion among Conservative councillors is threatening government plans to accelerate housebuilding in England with six out of 10 believing reforms will make planning less democratic. A survey across Tory heartlands has revealed party representatives are baulking at ministers’ plans to sharply increase housing targets in electoral strongholds like Hampshire and Surrey and are rejecting attempts to cut planning committees out of routine decision-making. Conservative leaders in councils are becoming increasingly vocal in their opposition to the plans which they fear could result in countryside being concreted over for housing and core voters deserting them in disgust. Read more on the Observer website.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/27/tory-councillors-in-revolt-over-plans-to-accelerate-housebuilding 

Housing Construction Output Remains At Half 2019 Levels

 Public housebuilding – which does not include housing associations – is worse affected than the private sector, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said, while repairs and maintenance construction is also well down on last year. The value of private new build housing construction work over the three months to June 2020 was 52.6% lower than in the same period last year, a record decrease since the ONS began publishing the data in January 2010. For the public sector, the drop was 56.9% – again a record fall. However, the value of private sector housebuilding in June soared a record 42.3% to £1.83bn on the previous month. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/housing-construction-output-remains-at-half-2019-levels-despite-june-surge-67482?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Johnson Announces 'Most Radical Planning Reforms Since WW2'

Boris Johnson has announced a new package of measures to build thousands of new homes as part of the government's Covid-19 recovery plan. New regulations will give greater freedom for buildings and land in town centres to change use without planning permission and create new homes from the regeneration of vacant and redundant buildings. Builders will no longer need a normal planning application to demolish and rebuild vacant and redundant residential and commercial buildings if they are rebuilt as homes. Included in the affordable homes programme will be a 1,500 unit pilot of ‘First Homes’: houses that will be sold to first time buyers at a 30% discount. Read more on the Financial Reporter website.

https://www.financialreporter.co.uk/finance-news/boris-johnson-announces-most-radical-planning-reforms-since-ww2.html

Coronavirus Slump Could Delay Building Of 300,000 Homes

More than 300,000 planned new homes may remain on the drawing board over the next five years, deepening the UK’s housing crisis, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, new research predicts. Stalled construction and the recession will slash the number of new homes being built, with 85,000 predicted to be lost this financial year, according to a study by the property agency Savills with the housing charity Shelter. Construction of the cheapest social housing could fall to a “catastrophic” low of 4,300 units annually. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/30/coronavirus-slump-could-delay-building-of-300000-homes

Hancock Tried To Block Plan To Build 400 Homes

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, repeatedly urged fellow Conservative ministers to block a plan to build 400 homes and a primary school in his constituency, claiming it would damage the horse racing industry. His opposition to the development came as senior figures in horse racing leading the opposition made financial donations to him. Rachel Hood, the then Conservative mayor of Newmarket, and her husband, John Gosden, a prominent horseracing trainer who gave evidence opposing the scheme at the public inquiry, each gave Hancock £10,000 in December 2018 and May last year respectively. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/jun/23/hancock-tried-to-block-plan-to-build-400-homes-in-newmarket

New Housing Starts To Fall By 60% This Year

The number of new housing starts will collapse by 60% this year in the wake of the covid-19 crisis, according to the latest forecast by the Construction Products Association (CPA). The organisation said that housebuilding will be the hardest hit of all the sectors of the construction industry, with output dropping by 42% in 2020 before a partial recovery in 2021. The forecast formed part of the body’s latest estimates for the construction industry overall, in which it said the industry will see its worst ever fall in output in 2020, of more than 25%, outpacing the decline experienced in the global financial crisis. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/new-housing-starts-to-fall-by-60-this-year/5106178.article

Private Housebuilding Suffers Record Output Fall In March

Gross domestic product fell by 5.8% in March alone as the country saw its biggest quarterly fall since the depths of the financial crisis in 2008 as the covid-19 slump begins. The figures reveal that the 2.0% fall in the first quarter of this year was the largest drop since the last quarter of 2008 – when the collapse of Lehman Brothers triggered a worldwide financial collapse. The March drop is the worst since ONS records began in 1997. Output fell by 6.4% month-on-month despite the lockdown only being announced in the last week. Read more on Housing Today.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/private-housebuilding-suffers-record-output-fall-in-march/5105980.article

Social Landlords ‘Face £10bn Bill To Fix Fire Safety Problems’

Social landlords have warned they are facing a bill of more than £10bn to fix fire safety problems after the Grenfell Tower disaster and that much-needed affordable housebuilding is in jeopardy unless the government funds a bailout. The cost is at least 25 times greater than the £400m budgeted for so far by ministers for housing associations to remove Grenfell-style cladding. It emerged as pressure grows on Downing Street to sanction a separate bailout of private leaseholders estimated at more than £2bn, with hundreds of thousands of homeowners unable to sell or mortgage their homes. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/mar/02/social-landlords-face-10bn-bill-to-fix-fire-safety-problems

No Quality Threshold For Help To Buy Funding

The government has decided not to force housebuilders to meet a specific quality threshold in order to access funding under the Help to Buy scheme. Publishing details of the terms under which the scheme will run between 2021 and when it closes in 2023, the government said the equity loan product, which has been instrumental in supporting the housebuilding industry, would be restricted to first-time buyers and subject to regional price caps. In addition, the government has laid out a series of further requirements that  builders will have to fulfil, such as signing up to the New Homes Ombudsman scheme. Read more on Housing Today.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/no-quality-threshold-for-help-to-buy-funding/5104509.article

Housebuilding Exceeded Population Growth In 2019

Housebuilders delivered enough homes to exceed population growth in the last year, according to research from Stone Real Estate. Between 2018 and 2019, 203,900 new dwellings were completed across the UK. With the average property home to 2.4 people, that’s enough housing for around 483,243 people. During the same time frame, the population is predicted to have grown by 395,321, meaning that not only have UK housebuilders kept pace with the increase, but have provided enough homes to house another 88,000 people. Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/property/housebuilding-exceeded-population-growth-in-2019.html

Councils Say 1m Homes Given Go-Ahead But Not Yet Built

Councils have hit back at possible government moves to strip them of planning powers to speed up housebuilding by releasing analysis that shows more than a million so-far unbuilt homes have been granted planning permission in the last decade. The Local Government Association said its analysis found 2,564,600 units had been given planning permission since 2009-10 and 1,530,680 had been constructed. The LGA argues the figures show that the white paper should allow local authorities to build on land that has planning permission, for example by assisting compulsory purchase on such land, and allowing councils to charge full council tax on unbuilt developments. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/20/councils-say-1m-homes-given-go-ahead-but-not-yet-built