“… It is now intended to consult on site options and policies in the summer with a consultation on a draft GESP towards the end of the year and a revised timescale has now been agreed with Strategic Planning Committee. “
Click to access 180719%20item%2010%20Appendix%20B%20Service%20Objectives%20Q4%2018-19.pdf
Make of that what you will!
“In the end almost every important domestic issue comes back to housing.
If you want to know why the economy is skewed towards the rich, why social mobility has stalled, why opportunities are curtailed and why health inequalities persist it is impossible to discuss any of these themes without reference to housing.
Having a decent home to live in should be a basic right but there are more than one million people on the waiting list for social housing.
Rent takes up 40% of our income on average, the highest in Europe where the average is 28%.
This consumes money which could, for instance, be spent on purchasing better quality food.
It is no accident the poorest people have the poorest diets.
Those on low-income are more likely to live in low quality homes with short-term tenancies.
A survey in 2016 found 60% of Londoners who rent were living in homes with unacceptable conditions such as damp or vermin.
Lower income families tend to live in areas with higher levels of air pollution and fewer opportunities to play outside either because of a lack of green spaces or high traffic densities.
This in turn puts pressure on the NHS and affects school performance.
Studies have shown that people who live on streets with high levels of traffic are less likely to interact with their neighbours.
Short term tenancies mean families in rental accommodation end up moving more often, disrupting schooling and fracturing social networks.
If you live in an area without decent public transport and cannot afford a car your chances of finding work or studying are more limited which curtails social mobility.
It is hardly surprising that the lack of social housing has driven up rents in the private sector.
A study by Shelter this week says private renting is unaffordable for working families on low wages in two-thirds of the country.
Help to Buy, which has so far cost £12billion, had the perverse effect of stimulating demand while doing nothing to address supply.
Wealth is accumulated in the hands of property and land owners but our local tax system is based on outdated property values rather than wealth and therefore entrenches inequality.
There are few more crucial issues and few of such importance which have been neglected by successive governments.
We are our on 16th Housing Minister in 18 years.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/you-want-build-better-society-17997349
“…. A report released in June by the National Audit Office revealed systems to collect the interest on Help to Buy equity loans after the initial five-year interest-free period were not put in place for all homeowners when some of the loans were originally set up.
This led to approximately 739 households falling into arrears potentially without knowing it once their interest-free period came to an end.
Now, some of those same homeowners say they are experiencing a fresh raft of problems.
A report released in June by the National Audit Office revealed systems to collect the interest on Help to Buy equity loans after the initial five-year interest-free period were not put in place for all homeowners when some of the loans were originally set up.
This led to approximately 739 households falling into arrears potentially without knowing it once their interest-free period came to an end. …
Now, some of those same homeowners say they are experiencing a fresh raft of problems.
[The] Government had appointed mortgage and loan servicing company Target to administer the Help to Buy loans.
When a borrower takes a Help to Buy equity loan, their local Help to Buy agent then passes on their details to Target to administer the loan.
… This is Money asked Homes England how long it should take for details to move over from Help to Buy agents to Target. It also asked how many homeowners are still in arrears.
Homes England declined to answer both questions. However, a source close to the organisation said the delay is linked to the time taken to document a new homeowner with the Land Registry.
This is Money then approached Target directly. The administrator was asked how many direct debits had been set up, and what the average wait time was.
Target did not respond to these questions. Instead a spokesman said: ‘We are aware that Homes England has provided a response and we would refer you to that. At this stage we don’t have anything further to add.’
… The report suggested that Target, the organisation administering the loans on behalf of Homes England, was overwhelmed by the volume of queries from homeowners once they started redeeming their loans and paying interest.
At one point, approximately 25 staff were dealing with some 20,000 customer enquiries per month, the report found.
As a result the company had to triple the number of staff dedicated to administering the scheme to keep up with demand.
The report also suggests that the group’s process for recovering outstanding debts wasn’t up to scratch. Target did not use enforcement agents or share information with credit reference agencies, the auditor found.
The group has since responded to this stating that it does use enforcement agents but was unable to in this case due to contractual and policy limitations.
On top of this, Homes England itself had raised concerns over the accuracy and completeness of data held by Target.”
“The prospect of local authorities being able to increase their fees for managing planning applications has been raised by housing and communities secretary James Brokenshire, as part of a long-awaited Accelerated Planning Green Paper.
With many departments relying on temporary staff from overseas and university courses closing through lack of demand, the shortage of local authority planners and under-resourcing of departments has been an acute problem for some time.
Planning Delivery Grant was introduced in 2003, linked to a 13-week target for decisions. For the next five years, £110m a year was allocated in grants. In the same period, £4.8m was spent on student bursaries to increase the number of qualified planners. Fee increases of 25% and 23% were introduced in 2005 and 2008.
But the problem, which was highlighted by the Public Accounts Committee in 2008 continued, hampering the Government’s ability to deliver changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, designed to boost housing supply.
Mr Brokenshire’s announcement has been widely welcomed. Some stakeholders, including the Royal Town Planning Institute, have been calling for English local authorities to be allowed to raise fees to cover the entire administrative cost of the planning application function.
The construction sector would be less than happy with such an approach, particularly small builders who have complained that the increased planning fees already imposed don’t seem to have speeded things up.
Richard Blyth, RTPI Head of Policy and Research, commented: “We are delighted to see that Mr Brokenshire has taken note of our proposals. We have been talking to our members and will be contributing to the forthcoming Accelerated Planning Green Paper. We look forward to working with the Government on its proposals.”
Martin Tett, Local Government Association’s Housing spokesman, said that council tax payers were currently subsidising planning application administration to the tune of £200m a year.
He commented: “It is good that the Government recognises our call for council planning departments to be given greater resources if they are to ensure applications are processed as efficiently and effectively as possible. Councils need to be able to set their own planning fees.”
Announcing the proposals at the CIEH’s annual housing conference in Manchester, Mr Brokenshire said: “The planning system is not a barrier to housebuilding – with councils approving nine in 10 applications, and the majority processed quickly while hundreds of thousands of homes have been given planning permission but are yet to be built.”
He said that the green paper would look at creating “greater capacity and capability within local planning authorities, stronger plan-making, better performance management and procedural improvements, including in the process of granting planning permissions.”
Currently, he said, only half of the annual £1bn spent on local authority planning functions was covered by fee income. The green paper would launch pilots of new approaches to meeting the costs of planning.
Councils would be expected “to demonstrate measurable improvements within their performance – not just in terms of speed, but very firmly also in terms of quality”.
Other Brokenshire announcements:
Government may appoint a new homes ombudsman to deal with shoddy standards in new-build
Consultation on redress for purchasers of new build homes
Ground rents on new leases reduced to zero, preventing leaseholders being charged exorbitant fees, and the sale of leasehold houses will be banned
Nineteen new garden villages delivering 73,000 new homes. They will include a facility for people with dementia at St George’s Barracks in Rutland
Proposals to make it easier for renters to transfer deposits between landlords when moving
Rogue landlord database could be accessed by tenants
Half of the £2bn of long term funding to 2028-29 for housing associations will go to London
Planning process for families wishing to extend their properties to be improved.”
£77,000 profit per house, adding £30,000-plus to the cost of a new home, poor quality builds, CEO laughing all the way to the bank with his multi-million bonuses – what could possibly go wrong? Answer: nothing goes wrongfor Persimmon, because this government doesn’t just turn a blind eye, it actively encourages this behaviour by putting developers in the planning driving seat (in chauffeur-driven cars)!
“Over half of properties sold by housebuilder Persimmon in the first six months of this year went to first-time buyers, the group’s trading update reveals.
The group sold 3,082 homes to first-time buyers, representing 52 per cent of all private sales for the period.
Speaking to This is Money, a spokesman for Persimmon said ‘around 50 per cent’ of these first-time buyers used Help to Buy schemes to complete their purchase.
While the proportion of purchases being made via Help to Buy adds weight to criticisms that housebuilders are being propped up by the Government schemes, they appear to have done little to help to Persimmon’s overall performance in the first half of the year….
… Persimmon scored the worst figures of all the major house builders in a recent Home Builders Federation new homes survey.
The firm launched a review of its house quality and customer care functions in April. …”
“Following the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act in 2017, councils in England must provide support to eligible homeless households, as well as those at risk of becoming homeless within 56 days.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government data shows there were 109 households which needed support after applying for help from East Devon District Council between October and December, including 30 families with children.
Of these, 85 were at risk of homelessness, meaning the council had to work with them to prevent them losing their home.
The remaining 24 were already homeless and the council was tasked with helping them to secure accommodation for a period of at least six months.
The households owed support by EDDC included:
– 79 contained a person with at least one high need – 25 people had an illness or physical disability, 39 had a mental health condition, two a learning disability and two were elderly.
– 23 were headed by a single mother and three by a single father.
– 12 were at risk of homelessness because of so-called no-fault evictions, after their landlord issued them with a soon-to-be banned Section 21 notice.
– 12 lost their last home because of domestic abuse.
– One was sleeping rough at the time they applied for help from the council.
– 31 were headed by a person aged 35 to 44 – the most common age group.
Housing charity Shelter has warned that councils are struggling to cope with the volume of people needing support amid a national ‘housing emergency’.
One in five homeless or at risk households in East Devon lost their last secure home because their assured shorthold tenancy – the most common type of private rental contract – ended.
There were also six households made homeless because their social tenancy came to an end while one came from supported housing, which could include refugees or housing for elderly or disabled people.
Of the social tenants, five lost their homes because they were behind on their rent.
An East Devon District Council spokesman said: “East Devon have seen a rise in homelessness, including numbers of rough sleepers and households requiring temporary accommodation, in line with the national picture.
“This increase has been intensified by the lack of availability of suitable accommodation options available to people due to factors including reductions in funding of supported accommodation projects, austerity measures and rises in the rent levels in the private sector leading to affordability issues. These factors all contribute towards added pressure on social housing which is already in short supply whilst facing high levels of demand.
“In order to meet this rise in demand, and to address the additional responsibilities brought in through the Homelessness Reduction Act, changes have been made to the service with the responsibility of assisting people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness. …”
“New-build “affordable” homes are standing empty after nearly a dozen housing associations rejected them for being too small.
The five properties were deemed to be lacking the square footage required to meet “modern standards of social housing.”
Developer Monument Two Ltd is currently building 42 homes at Derby’s former Calder Aluminium site in Repton Road, reports DerbyshireLive.
South Derbyshire District Counciil signed off on the scheme in 2010 but it has not yet been completed.
Now the firm has told the council that the affordable homes built on the site have been seen as too small by 11 housing associations that were offered them.
The housing associations also said that there were not enough affordable homes on the site – with just five built due to the cost of developing the site.
Of the five homes, two are three-bed homes and three are two-bed homes.
The council says that the square footage of the homes does not meet modern standards of social housing – which have been upgraded since 2010 when the homes were approved. …”
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/developer-built-new-homes-small-16515537
Owl says: time to stimulate sales with price drops, perhaps? Bringing that profit-per-house at Persimmon down from £77,000 to, say, £27,000 would certainly bring a lot of buyers in! Of course, then there would be no masdive director bonuses, so guess that’s a non-starter (home).
“Britain’s construction sector suffered as “sharp drop in momentum” last month, says data firm Markit.
In a very worrying healthcheck on the construction sector, Markit has found that business activity and incoming new work both fell at the fastest pace for just over 10 years.
Housebuilding, commercial construction and big civil engineering work all contracted during the month — a bad sign for the whole construction sector.
Builders across the country blamed “risk aversion among clients in response to heightened political and economic uncertainty.”
That suggests people are simply unwilling to take risks while they don’t know how the Brexit crisis will be resolved.
This has dragged the IHS Markit/CIPS UK Construction Total Activity Index down to just 43.1 in June, down sharply from 48.6 in May. Any reading below 50 shows a contraction, and this shows the steepest reduction in overall construction output since April 2009.” …
UK builders also reported that new orders dropped at the fastest rate in over 10 years, while demand for construction products and materials fell at the sharpest pace since the start of 2010.”
Be warned, Axminster.
“Scores of complaints have been made about rented properties on royal land and tenants have faced more than 100 evictions, a Guardian investigation has found, prompting anger over how the Queen’s £14bn property portfolio is managed.
The crown estate, which helps bankroll the Queen by giving the monarch 25% of its profits, has sought to evict 113 tenants in the past five years so they can sell their homes for profit.
It comes after it has emerged on Tuesday that the taxpayer has footed a £2.4m bill to renovate Frogmore Cottage, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s official residence, according to royal accounts. While the royals have no direct oversight role in crown estate’s dealings, Prince William and Prince Charles have both spoken before about the importance of ensuring good quality housing is available for all.
Figures obtained by the Guardian show that the crown estate has received more than 100 complaints about its residential properties in just two years, including grievances over rent hikes, leaks, delays in repairs and faulty electrical goods. …
An investigation using data obtained through Freedom of Information laws reveals that:
The crown estate has made £1.1bn selling off more than 700 residential and commercial properties since 2014, with one private firm subsequently hiking rent well above inflation.
More than a quarter of a million pounds has been banked by the crown estate in housing benefit from just seven hard-up tenants.
Four tenants have sued the crown estate for breach of contract, including one claim worth half a million pounds. …
Prince Charles has also spoken out in the past in favour of affordable housing for low-paid workers. In 2003, he said in a speech that “the lack of affordable rural housing is one of the most important issues facing the countryside”. …
The crown estate issued 113 “notices to quit” to residential tenants from 2014 to 2018, including 97 in rural properties, nine in Windsor and seven in central London.
Other figures also reveal that the crown estate gained more than a quarter of a million pounds in housing benefit from just seven tenants. People renting in Camden, Runnymede and Windsor and Maidenhead have let property on royal land using housing benefit paid directly to the crown estate.
Since 2014, £253,092 has been paid to the crown estate in housing benefit. The majority of the payments were for five tenants in Camden, north London. …”
“In an inaugural national audit of intergenerational spending power, which is likely to reignite tensions between young and old, the Resolution Foundation thinktank concludes that today’s 18- to 29-year-olds are also spending less on shoes and clothes, hobbies and travel in real terms than those at the same age in 2001 as housing costs have soared. Compared with people the same age at the turn of the millennium they are 7% poorer in real terms, after paying rent, or if they can afford it, mortgage dues.
Meanwhile, in a story that will be familiar to the rising millions of twentysomethings who can’t afford to move out from their parents home, baby boomers have cranked up their spending on fun, laying out more on recreation, restaurants, hotels and culture, as people aged 65 and over have enjoyed a steep 37% rise in spending power compared with the same generation in 2001.
The audit is published by the Resolution Foundation’s new Intergenerational Centre, which is led by the former science minister David Willetts, and it said the findings debunked “the idea that young people are devoting growing pots [of money] to eating in restaurants and cafés (be that those that serve avocado on toast or others) or flying abroad”.
The proportion the young spent on fuel and groceries was up two percentage points while their spending on recreation and culture was down two points, the share spend on restaurants and hotels was down one point and clothing and shoes down two points. The 65s and over spent three percentage points less on groceries, two percentage points more on restaurants and hotels and three percentage points more on recreation and culture.
“The clear picture in terms of day-to-day living standards as measured through household consumption is of generational progress for older generations, and generational decline for younger ones,” the report said.
A spokesman for Generation Rent, which represents young people who have been priced out of homeownership, said in response to the report that “resentment is growing” and the founder of the Intergenerational Foundation, which promotes the interests of younger generations, accused older people of “breaking the social contract”.
Far from wasting potential housing deposits on fripperies, as suggested in 2017 by one millionaire property developer, millennials have been obliged to allocate a greater proportion of any money left over after housing costs to groceries, utilities and education. In 2018 they spent £380 a week on non-housing items on average – 7% less in real terms than they would have done at the turn of the century, analysis of official figures showed. At the same time the spending of people aged 50-64 rose 11% to £460, and pensioner spending rose to £390 a week.
The audit also assesses sharp increases in housing costs, cuts to in-work benefits, stagnant pay since the financial 2008 financial crisis and widening gaps in absolute wealth between young and old as key factors in one of the biggest social changes of this era.
Half a million more twentysomethings are living at home than would have been the case if the pre-crisis trend had not been disrupted, the report found. In 2007, half of 21- to 24-year-olds lived with their parents but by 2018 this had risen to 60%. The increase for those in their late twenties was even greater, up a third from 24% to 32%. …”
” … Boris Johnson, Sajid Javid (ousted from contest), and Jeremy Hunt – are moonlighting as landlords, and it shows.
We’ve now had two televised debates and housing has barely had a look in. While the outgoing Prime Minister has said she considers “solving the housing crisis is the biggest domestic policy challenge of our generation”, the candidates to replace her seem unphased by it. …
There has been no mention of social housing, nobody has outlined their plan for Generation Rent, one in three of whom will be renting from cradle to grave, and our growing population of pensioner renters has received zero mentions. Listening to them, you would be forgiven for thinking house prices and rents weren’t rising faster than wages. …
Housing inequality certainly played a part in Brexit and, as Conservative think tank Onward highlighted in 2018, by the time of the next election, there will be 253 constituencies where more than 20 per cent of voters are renters. That’s an increase from just 18 at the 2001 election. And they are not voting Tory.
Coming up with a comprehensive strategy for the housing crisis and set of policies to back it up would take time but, at the very least, it would be good to see the social catastrophe that is unaffordable housing acknowledged by the men who want to be the next Prime Minister. …”
At least three of the Tory leadership contenders are moonlighting as landlords, and it shows
“Berlin’s left-wing government has approved a plan to freeze rents in the German capital for the next five years.
Rents have risen sharply in the city and there have been rallies urging the authorities to keep housing affordable.
The plan is expected to become law in January. It could apply to 1.4 million properties, but not to social housing – regulated separately – or new builds.
The average monthly rent for a furnished Berlin flat is about €1,100 (£983; $1,232). …”
“The number of Britons with second homes has soared to 5.5million – with their extra properties worth £1trillion.
One in ten own holiday houses, buy-to-lets and overseas properties, according to the Resolution Foundation think-tank.
But the boom comes at the expense of young people, who struggle to get on the property ladder because of rising prices.
Just one in three own a home by the age of 29 – far fewer than the half of baby boomers who had one at the same age.
The Resolution Foundation said property wealth was becoming concentrated among older, richer Britons, with those born in the Fifties more likely to own a second home than any other age group.
It added that younger adults are left boosting the wealth of their parents’ generation by paying significant rental costs.
Spokesman George Bangham said: ‘The rise of additional property wealth is the flipside of falling home ownership. The scale of additional property wealth is an important driver of rising wealth gaps.
‘And as the huge stock of second homes, buy-to-let and overseas properties starts to be passed on to younger generations, Britain risks becoming a country where getting ahead in life depends as much on what you inherit as what you earn.’
The Resolution Foundation’s Game Of Homes report showed that the 5.5million people with additional property wealth had gone up by 53 per cent since 2001, and the value of their second homes increased from £610billion in 2001 to £941billion.
There are 1.9million owners of buy-to-let properties, 700,000 more than a decade ago, making it the most common form of second property. However, the number of people who own overseas property did not change at 970,000.
Since 2002, average house prices have soared from five times income to eight times income, but many believe this is the result of housing supply, not demand from those seeking a second home. …”
“Almost two-thirds of homebuyers who used the government’s Help to Buy scheme could have bought a home without it, an official report has said.
However, they may not have been able to buy the house they wanted without the help, the report from the National Audit Office (NAO) found.
It also found that one in 25 of participants had household incomes of over £100,000.
The scheme did help boost the profits of building firms, the NAO said.
It was too early to determine if the scheme had delivered value for money for the taxpayer, the report said.
“Help To Buy has increased home ownership and housing supply, particularly for first-time buyers,” Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said.
“However, a proportion of participants could have afforded to buy a home without the government’s help.
“The scheme has also exposed the government to significant market risk if property values fall, as well as tying up a significant public financial capacity.
“The government’s greatest challenge now is to wean the property market off the scheme with as little impact as possible on its ambition of creating 300,000 homes a year by 2021,” he said.
By 2023, the government will have invested up to £29bn in the scheme, tying up cash which cannot be used elsewhere,” the NAO said.
Bigger firms made the most of the scheme.
Between 2013 and 2018 more than half the sales in England made by Redrow, Bellway, Taylor Wimpey, Barratt and Persimmon involved Help to Buy.
‘Housing bubble’
Persimmon is the biggest beneficiary, with almost 15% of the sales made under the Help to Buy Scheme.
Persimmon saw its annual profits top £1bn last year.
Mike Amey, managing director of global investment management firm Pimco, has told the BBC that profit on a house sold by Persimmon had trebled since Help to Buy was introduced, “roughly from £20,000 to £60,000”.
Fran Boait, executive director of campaigning body Positive Money, said: “It’s now beyond clear that rather than helping those who can’t afford to buy a home, Help To Buy has mainly been a subsidy for a housing bubble, benefiting property developers and existing home owners.”
The government’s investment is expected to be returned from the scheme by 2032 after it closes in 2023. However, the size of the loans mean it is very much exposed to the performance of the housing market.
From April 2021, the scheme will be restricted just to first-time buyers.”
So many drawbacks!
Oooh … just in time for Cranbrook’s latest expansion plans! AND when councils all over the country are declaring a climate emergency and trying to avoid unsustainable projects. Catch 22 there for TiggerTories!
Or perhaps it will go to a new National Park – lol.
“Councils will be required to report on the agreements reached with housing developers to pay for infrastructure, under new rules laid in Parliament this week.
Housing Minister Kit Malthouse claimed that “confusing and unnecessarily over-complicated” rules were being simplified, so that communities would know exactly how much developers were paying for infrastructure in their area.
Councils will have to set out how the money will be spent “enabling residents to see every step taken to secure their area is ready for new housing”.
The Government also claimed that the changes would make it faster for councils to introduce the Community Infrastructure Levy in the first place.
Restrictions are to be eased to allow councils to fund single, larger infrastructure projects from the cash received from multiple developments, “giving greater freedom to deliver complex projects at pace”, it added.
The Minister of State said: “Communities deserve to know whether their council is fighting their corner with developers – getting more cash to local services so they can cope with the new homes built.
“The reforms not only ensure developers and councils don’t shirk their responsibilities, allowing residents to hold them to account – but also free up councillors to fund bigger and more complicated projects over the line.
“The certainty and less needless complexity will lead to quicker decisions.”
The regulations will be debated once parliamentary time allows.
The Government has also published its response to the views received in its technical consultation on developer contributions reform.”
So, what happens when the towns and villages you do come from are just as expensive as Bristol (with wages in Exeter lower than those in Exeter)?
Well, in East Devon, you are mostly funnelled into Cranbrook – as that is where most so-called “Help to Buy” new homes are being built.
The national article uses an example of someone moving from East Devon to Bristol.
“More young people are getting stuck where they grew up or went to university because they cannot afford rents in places where they can earn more money, according to the Resolution Foundation thinktank. It found the number of people aged 25 to 34 starting a new job and moving home in the last year had fallen 40% over the last two decades. …
In 1997, moving from east Devon to Bristol increased median incomes by 19%, but rising rents cut that increase to 1% in 2018. …
Landlords blamed the government for failing to sufficiently increase the supply of new homes. The Residential Landlords Association (RLA) also criticised measures which appear to be encouraging landlords to sell up, including reduction in mortgage interest relief for landlords and an increase in stamp duty.
“The biggest threat to rent levels are the policies being pursued by the government which are choking off the supply of homes for private rent as demand is increasing,” said the RLA policy director, David Smith.
The findings came as the affordable housing commission released research found 43% of all renters were now facing affordability problems and that 5.5 million renters were unable to buy a home of their own.
The commission, which was established by the Smith Institute thinktank and chaired by the crossbench peer Richard Best, said that when rents or purchase costs exceeded a third of household income for those in work, it could lead to financial difficulties and these problems became critical where housing costs were 40% or more of household income.”
“Young people should be able to raid their pension pots early to help fund a deposit on their first home, a senior Government minister has argued.
Speaking this morning at think tank Policy Exchange, the secretary of State for housing James Brokenshire suggested that allowing savers to use pension savings as a deposit could help alleviate the financial barriers facing first-time buyers.
He said: ‘We should be looking at allowing an individual to use part of their pension pot as a deposit on a first-time home purchase.’
However, one pensions expert has labelled the idea as ‘bonkers’ and ‘dangerous’. …
… Tom Selby, senior analyst at AJ Bell, said: ‘This idea smacks of dangerous political short-termism.
‘While the housing market clearly has its problems, allowing people to raid their pensions is not a sensible answer.
‘Chronic undersaving for later life is one of the biggest challenges facing society today, so a proposal which encourages people to drain their pension pots risks making this problem even worse.’
Steven Cameron, pensions director at Aegon, added: ‘Saving for a house deposit and making provision for retirement are the two greatest financial challenges facing younger generations.
‘But the same money can’t be used twice and there’s a huge risk that offering early access to pensions to pay house deposits will be a far too tempting ‘bird in the hand’ offer.’ …”
“Finland is the only EU country where homelessness is falling. Its secret? Giving people homes as soon as they need them – unconditionally”
” Participation not Consultation:
At Civic Voice we are aware of the growth agenda and the need for more homes to be built. Our members understand this too, yet all over England many of these members, who are knowledgeable and positive people, have had to engage in fighting Local Plans and planning proposals that they feel passionately are not right for their places.
It is time to change the way things are done and to bring communities genuinely to the heart of planning and place-making. ‘Participation not Consultation’ is about bringing people in at an early stage to develop the proposals through collaborative planning processes, also known as Charrettes.
The Charrette approach involves community members working alongside local authorities and developers to co-create design-led, visual plans and strategies. It is an inspirational and energising activity where the results of collaboration are seen immediately, with the knowledge that an individual’s input actually matters. It also has the potential to greatly increase the speed of the formal planning and design process.
Civic Voice has launched a campaign to bring these collaborative processes into mainstream planning so that, through shared working from an early stage, communities can help shape and support growth and development that is right for their place.”
East Devon Watch 