Public Housing Projects Boost Build Figures

A 5.5% rise in public housing – which includes housing associations – boosted the UKs latest construction output figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published the monthly estimate of output in the construction industry in Great Britain for November 2016, in both the private and public sectors. This estimate outlined:

·         Total new housing output grew at a monthly rate of 1.2% in comparison with October 2016, representing the biggest increment since February 2016

·         This increase is in part a result of the notable 5.5% rise in public housing, which includes housing associations

·         There was an increase of 13.7% compared with November 2015, the largest month-on-year growth rise since December 2014.

Read more on 24housing.

Fall In Public House Building

The number of public homes built has fallen by 20.7%, compared to a 5.8% increase in private housebuilding. The latest release on construction output in Britain from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows in April public housebuilding fell by 20.7% compared to April 2015, whereas private new housing increased by 5.8% in the same period. The ONS said this is the twelfth year of decreases in public housebuilding. Overall housebuilding increased by 0.9% compared to April 2015. The ONS defines public housing as local authority schemes, hostels, older people’s homes, orphanages and children’s remand homes for juvenile offenders. Download the figures from the ONS website.

Right-To-Buy Policy ‘Will Cut New-Build Social Housing’

The controversial extension of “right to buy” to housing association tenants is set to trigger a 10 per cent fall in public home building this year, construction industry experts have warned. The forecasts from the Construction Products Association intensify the spotlight on a policy that critics say will discourage home-building and exacerbate the nation’s acute housing shortage. The CPA predicts that the uncertainty caused by the policy will see public housing starts fall 10 per cent to 27,057 this year, after the Budget caused a hiatus in building work, as well as a further 5 per cent fall next year. Read more on the Independent website.

Generation Rent Calls For Secretary Of State for Housing

Generation Rent has published its own ‘Queen Speech on housing’ policy document, sponsored by the youth network of the CWU trade unions. The document says that the housing crisis cannot be fixed without proper leadership, effective regulation, a commitment to “wean the country off rising house prices” and investment in public housing. The demands include a position of Secretary of State for Housing, protections for tenants when their landlord wants to sell the property, and a system of rent control and tax on landlords, which it says would raise money for a public house building programme. Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

Construction Output For Public Housing Up By 30%

The construction industry output for new public housing work has increased by nearly 30 per cent in the past 12 months. Office for National Statistics figures for May show activity rose by 29.3 per cent year on year, compared with 16.8 per cent for private housing. All new housing work grew by 19.4 per cent. The data is based on the results of a monthly survey of 8,000 businesses in Great Britain. Output is defined as the amount construction companies charge to customers for value of work produced during the period, excluding VAT and payments to sub-contractors. Read more on Inside Housing.

Housing Market: Build, Build, Build

Two numbers sum up one of the biggest problems in Britain today. They are: 240,000 and 108,190. The first – 240,000 – is the rough forecast for how many new homes are needed each year to meet demand; while 108,190 is the actual number of new homes added in England in the last financial year. That shortfall swells and falls, but is always there – and it accounts for the country's housing crisis.  The housing shortfall is one of the largest drivers of the last boom and it mainly explains why prices are still going up in the neo-boomlet economy of London and the south east. It will not be alleviated to any meaningful degree by the extension of the Help-to-Buy programme. Help to Buy will not increase housing supply by anything like as much as a directed building programme. There is a dire need for more public housing and there are also high unemployment and low interest rates. These are surely all the ingredients for central and local government to start building the homes of the future. Instead, we have another bubble in the making.  Read more on the Guardian website.