Government Will Fail To Reach New Homes Target Until 2028

The latest research by Birmingham and Newcastle-based property developer, StripeHomes, reveals that, at the current rate of progress, the UK government will not achieve its pledge of delivering 300,000 new homes a year until 2028. In 2017, the UK government pledged to build 300,000 new homes a year by ‘the mid-2020s’. We are now only a few years away from this deadline, and the data shows that the government has only just managed to break the 200,000 homes a year mark, let alone get close to 300,000. Read more on the Stripe Homes website.

https://www.stripehomes.co.uk/government-will-fail-to-reach-new-homes-target-until-2028/ 

Formula For Locating New Homes Revised After Tory Backlash

Proposals for controversial planning reforms in England have been revised, after new housing targets prompted a backlash amongst many Conservative MPs. A computer-based formula used to decide where houses should be located has been "updated" to focus more on cities and urban areas in the North and Midlands. Ministers said cash for brownfield sites would be distributed more fairly outside London and the South East. Some MPs in southern England said their areas risked being "concreted over". The government wants to 300,000 new homes to be built across England each year by the mid-2020s. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55322993

Sadiq Khan Misses His Affordable Housing Target For Second Straight Quarter

Sadiq Khan is on track to build just half the amount of promised new housing this year, after missing his quarterly target for the second time in a row. Figures released today show 2,202 Greater London Authority-funded houses were started between July and September, compared to 2,672 in the first quarter. The mayor of London’s target figure for 2019-20 is to start between 17,000 and 23,000 affordable homes, meaning an average of 4,874 a quarter. Currently, City Hall is on track to build less than 10,000 new homes in 2019-20. Read more on the City AM website.

https://www.cityam.com/sadiq-khan-misses-his-affordable-housing-target-for-second-straight-quarter/

Government Lays Down Planning Rules For Future Housing

Councils get an easier challenge to poor quality and unattractive development and communities a greater voice as to how developments should look and feel under new government guidance. To help tackle unaffordable house prices in many areas across the country, the framework sets out a new way for councils to calculate the housing need of their local community-  including different forms of housing, such as retirement homes. The LGA has described it as “hugely disappointing” that the rules didn’t reflect its concerns over nationally set housing targets. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/government-lays-down-planning-rules-for-future-housing/

‘It’s Obscene’ - £80m Revamp Set To Include Just Four Affordable Homes

New homes, a hotel and offices are to be created in Norwich after an £80m revamp of the area around a former shoe factory was given the go-ahead. But opponents to the proposals said it was “obscene” that only four affordable homes are planned. There was criticism that a viability assessment written for the developers had argued a provision of 50 affordable homes - which would have hit a 33pc target for affordable housing - would prevent the scheme being cost-effective. Instead they had argued only four affordable homes, or a commuted sum of £353,234, would be acceptable to allow work to begin at the site. Read more on the Norwich Evening News website.

Builders Make Billions As Housing Crisis Escalates

Britain’s biggest housebuilding firms and their executives have pocketed billions of pounds as the country’s housing crisis escalates and affordable homes targets are missed. The four most powerful companies – Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey, Barratt and Berkeley Group – together made more than £2bn in pre-tax profits last year and are planning to give £6.6bn extra in dividends to shareholders by 2021. Meanwhile the number of affordable homes built fell to a 24-year low this year. Housebuilders argue that affordable housing targets are financially unviable. House prices have risen five times more than average wages in the last five years.  Our calculations also show that just eight directors working for major housebuilders together earned £230m in the last five years. Read more on the BIJ website.

Increasing Housing Stock Doesn’t Have To Be A Taxing Issue

With the south East, including London, continuing to miss the 50,000 housing target (by around 50%) it is no surprise that house prices are more than 10 times the average wage for Londoners and therefore unaffordable.  Sadiq Khan clearly has the shortage of homes, and consequent high house prices and rents, at the top of his agenda. However, there is increasing cause for concern that committing to a 50% affordable housing target will mean that developers may very well be alienated and walk away from certain projects if they can’t make the necessary profit. In essence, his policy may do more harm than good. So, what options are available to Khan if he truly intends on cracking the housing crisis? Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

Mayor Consults on Housing Quality Guidance

The Mayor of London has offered up for public consultation new planning guidance he claims will maximise the construction of quality homes. Interested parties are being invited to comment on the new guidance, which includes detail on building specifically for long-term private rentals, the potential introduction of affordable housing targets in new areas, and more details on vacant building credits for developers. Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

Developers to Make Affordable Housing Viability Studies 'Fully Public'

A London borough is to make it mandatory for all developers to supply a "fully public" viability study - if they submit planning applications that don’t meet the council's affordable housing target. The Royal Borough of Greenwich requires developers to include at least 35% of affordable housing in new residential developments of more than ten new homes. At the moment, developers who say their development isn’t economically viable with this level of affordable housing have to supply a viability study which they can request stays confidential. The study is then assessed by an independent expert on behalf of the council which makes recommendations to the planning board as part of the overall report it considers in relation to the application. Read more on 24dash.