Young Adults Had To Shelve Homebuying Plans In 2020

A number of young adults had to scrap their plans to buy in 2020, as the number of mortgages available to those with a small deposit diminished, the How We Live study from Aviva found. Last year saw the market lockdown stop house moves in March. Once the market reopened the stamp duty holiday did more to help homemovers and investors than first-time buyers. Almost a third (29%) of under-25s and two fifths (39%) of 25–34-year-olds had their home buying plans thwarted. Meanwhile seven in 10 (69%) potential first-time buyers rethought their homebuying plans. Read more on Property Wire.

https://www.propertywire.com/news/lots-of-young-adults-had-to-shelve-homebuying-plans-in-2020/

Councils Face Pressure To Publish And Adopt Updated Housing Plans

Local councils must produce plans to speed up the provision of housing by 2017 or risk losing control of their planning process, David Cameron will say as the government prepares to publish its much awaited housing bill. The legislation will contain measures requiring councils to sell off their most expensive properties and to allow housing association tenants to buy their property. So far 82% of English councils have published local plans, which should set out how many homes they plan to deliver over a set period, but only 65% have fully adopted them and almost 20% of councils do not have an up-to-date plan at all. The bill also contains measures previously set out in the government productivity plan for automatic planning permission in principle on brownfield sites. Read more on the Guardian website.

Labour Plans for Housebuilding

The Labour party has released a report based on a commission led by Sir Michael Lyons into the housing and planning policies needed to reach the 200,000 homes-a-year target. The Lyons housing review states that under a Labour government:

·         Up to half of new homes will be reserved for sale to local people.

·         Councils will restrict the number of homes sold for buy-to-let.

·         Local authorities will be able to designate housing growth areas.

·         The planning inspectorate will have increased powers to force councils to develop a housing plan.

·         Local authorities will not be able to borrow money to build, but housing will be a priority of the government’s capital spend.

·         Councils that have reached the HRA cap will be able to borrow from other councils that haven’t.

·         Groups of local authorities could form new Homes Corporations with strong planning powers.

·         There will be measures to underwrite loans to help small builders.

Download the full report from the yourbritain website.

Labour Conference: Housing Round-Up

Housing will become a "great national priority" under a Labour government, said shadow housing minister Jack Dromey at the Labour party conference – and the range of plans that emerged appeared to support that. After a long policy silence, Labour announced a string of housing plans, including;

• Increase housebuilding rates to 200,000 a year by 2020
• Use-it-or-lose-it deals for developers
• Mansion tax
• Cities given the 'right to grow'
• Repeal the bedroom tax
• Scrapping the affordable rent programme
• … but the right-to-buy will remain

For more details of these plans go to the Guardian website.