Green Agenda ‘Putting Pressure’ On Land Values

Research by Savills says UK residential development land values have picked up across the market after a two-year period of mostly static prices. The real estate adviser said uncertainty peaked in the final quarter of 2019 leading up to the election with slowing transactional activity and deals taking longer to complete in some areas of the country. But the election result has caused a rapid rise in confidence both amongst buyers of land and in the housing market, with greenfield land, urban land and house prices all rising at the end of 2019. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/green-agenda-putting-pressure-on-land-values-says-savills/5104093.article

Ministers Shelve Plans To Bulldoze Green Belt

At least half the Cabinet are already facing controversy over plans to allow green fields to be bulldozed for housing. Those affected include Theresa May, Chancellor Philip Hammond, and Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon, who has vowed publicly to ‘fight to protect the Green Belt from inappropriate development’. Communities Secretary Sajid Javid was reported last year to be considering easing the rules that allow councils to build on Green Belt land provided they designate equivalent areas of land for protection. But Tory sources insist his remarks were over-interpreted and believe the idea will be quietly shelved when a White Paper on housing is published later this month. Read more on the Daily Mail website.

House Building Land In UK Affected By Developers Post Brexit Sentiment

Greenfield development land prices fell by 0.4% in the third quarter of 2016, meaning they have fallen by 2.6% between April and the end of September and by 3.9% over 12 months. The index data also shows that in prime central London land prices are down by 10.3% on the year, and are now at around the same levels as June 2014. Meanwhile, prices for urban brownfield land values remain unchanged and are up 6% on an annual basis, mirroring the outperformance of housing markets in urban centres where average capital values mean there is a wide pool of demand which is not being matched by supply. The report says that the declines reflect the uncertainty around Brexit and the potential resulting impact on the UK economy. Read more on Property Wire.

Quicker To Build Homes On Brownfield Sites

Housing developments on brownfield sites are completed more quickly than those on greenfield land. While the time between planning permission and work starting is generally the same for brownfield and greenfield sites, brownfield developments are finished more than six months sooner, research for the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) found. The research looked at 1,040 developments with active planning consent during three years up to March 2015 in 15 urban and urban-rural fringe local authorities. Both types of site - brownfield and previously undeveloped, or greenfield, land - took an average of 29 weeks to start after they had secured planning permission. But brownfield sites then took an average of 63 weeks to be completed, in comparison with 92 weeks for greenfield sites. Read more on the Daily Mail website.

Tens Of Thousands Of New Homes In Greenfield Areas To Get Automatic Planning Permission

Tens of thousands of new homes in greenfield areas in England will be given automatic planning permission amid fears that communities will have inappropriate developments forced on them. Ministers have quietly given developers the right to be granted "planning in principle" in areas that are earmarked for new housing schemes. Rural campaigners said the new powers will restrict the rights of council planning officers to ensure that the design, density, size and location of homes is in keeping with local areas. Ministers have quietly expanded the scope of this "planning in principle" power in recent weeks from brownfield sites to areas earmarked for development in local plans.

Government documents said the new power will apply to "housing identified in local plans and neighbourhood plans" which include greenfield areas.  Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.

Housing Boom on Horizon

A new housing boom could be on the way - with a relaxation of planning laws prompting a surge in the number of large housing estates being forced through by developers, a study claims. England’s local authorities approved 195,000 planning applications over the past year, which is a 9 per cent rise on the average before legal changes came in promoting sustainable development. The figures come as a Conservative peer said hundreds of thousands of homes must be built on 800 square miles of British countryside where there are ‘big, open, flat fields of no agricultural merit’. Lord Wolfson of Aspley Guise said the Government must allow construction on greenfield areas - and added that he does not believe the country is already over-developed.  Read more on the Daily Mail website.

'A Liar and a Fool!' Campaigners Maul Planning Minister

Planning Minister Nick Boles was branded a liar and a fool by countryside campaigners as he renewed calls to build homes on greenfield land. 

Members of the Campaign to Protect Rural England repeatedly heckled Mr Boles and walked out as he told them those who resist house building will condemn rural villages to being ‘museum exhibits’.  The minister claimed quiet villages ‘need some noise’ in the form of younger people or they will ‘become fossilised’ or ‘embalmed’. The group’s annual meeting turned ugly when Mr Boles rejected CPRE members’ claims that developers are to blame for the housing crisis by refusing to build on 400,000 plots that have planning permission. But the minister insisted it was the failure to release enough land in the countryside for development which was the problem.  Several CPRE members repeatedly yelled ‘it’s not true’ and two stormed out of the meeting in central London, accusing Mr Boles of failing to listen to their objections. Read more on the Daily Mail website.

Houses 'Better Than Green Fields'

Building houses will create more ‘human happiness’ than preserving fields, the Planning Minister has claimed.  Nick Boles says the Government is determined to speed up the rate of house building, despite opposition from countryside groups. And he said communities who refused to support the initiative risked losing their hospitals and high street shops as their populations shrank.  Mr Boles acknowledged that rural rights campaigners and Conservative supporters were ‘very worried’ when greenfield land was replaced by ‘the sheer ugliness and soullessness of housing estates’.  Mr Boles said: ‘It’s a difficult thing to be a Conservative MP arguing for more houses to be built, sometimes on green fields.’  But he branded councils who refuse to co-operate ‘deeply irresponsible’.  He said: ‘There’s no question that some local authorities are dragging their feet.  ‘Some of them think to themselves they will sit on their hands and let applications come in and refuse them and then blame Nick Boles. It’s deeply irresponsible.’  Read more on the Daily Mail website.

Flint: 'Housing Crisis Won't Be Solved By Empty Offices Plan'

Shadow communities secretary Caroline Flint has hit out at the coalition's plans to make it easier for businesses to "by-pass" the planning system. During the Commons debate on the Budget, she said that while ministers claimed they wanted to give people more of a say about planning matters, its policies did the opposite. More greenfield sites will be developed as the Government has ditched targets for building on previously-used land, while proposals for 200,000 new homes had been dropped, she added. Turning to communities secretary Eric Pickles, she said: "This Budget was crying out for ministers to support housing. It didn't happen. But all this Budget has come up with is the idea to allow commercial properties to be turned into homes without requiring planning permission. If you really believe that the answer to this country's housing crisis is turning some empty offices into luxury penthouses, or asking people to live in disused out-of-town business parks or derelict warehouses on industrial estates, then you had better think again." Read more on 24dash.