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Posted on

29 Aug 2016

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Affordable and Social Housing, Developers/ Development, Land banking, Land Supply

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“Developers deliberately restricting housing supply to keep prices high”

“Developers have been accused of deliberately restricting the supply of new houses to keep prices high after figures suggested that planning permission has been granted for 750,000 homes which have not been built.

A report by Civitas, a respected right of centre thinktank, found that overall more than two million planning permits were issued between 2006 and 2015, a rate which would be enough to build average of 204,000 new homes a year.

However, foundations were only been laid on 1.26 million of them, suggesting that developers and land owners are sitting on the permissions rather than building new homes. …

… campaigners said that they should have included a “sunset clause” which would have forced developers to build on land granted planning permission within a set time period. …

… The analysis shows that between 2011 – the last full year before the changes were introduced – and 2015, the number of unused planning permits jumped by 88 per cent, while new housing starts increased by just 26 per cent.

One third of “unbuilt planning permissions” were thought to be held by non-builders, Civitas said, which “points to land hoarding in the hope of further rises in land values”.

Civitas accused housebuilders of reducing sales to a “drip-feed” to maintain profit margins.

Daniel Bentley, editorial director at Civitas, said: “David Cameron’s relaxation of the planning rules has so far only been to the advantage of developers, who have banked the additional planning permissions and topped up their pipelines for future years without increasing output.

“The challenge for Theresa May’s government now is to break the stranglehold that the major housebuilders are exerting on the supply of new homes.”

He added: “It is increasingly evident that the brake on development is being applied by those who are sitting on land which is ripe for new homes and has been given the all-clear by planning authorities.

“This includes land speculators, who are content to sit tight while their holdings spiral in value, but is mostly housebuilders, who lack any incentive to get on and build the homes the country needs.

“Housebuilders are drip-feeding the market in order to push up prices and maximise their profits.”

Last night MPs said they would investigate the figures as part of a new cross-party Parliamentary inquiry into the UK’s sluggish house building rates.

Clive Betts MP, the chairman of the Communities and Local Government select committee, said: “Planning reforms will be a failure unless the Government can act and turn planning permissions into completions.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/28/developers-accused-of-deliberately-restricting-the-supply-of-new/

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East Devon Watch

Posted on

9 Aug 2016

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Affordable and Social Housing, AONB, Developers/ Development, EDDC, Local Plan, Rural communities

East Devon villages must feed back on EDDC’s plans for their boundaries by 28 September 2016

The expansion of some of East Devon’s most recognisable villages is at the forefront of a new public consultation.

East Devon District Council has begun the eight-week process for its major draft Villages Plan.b The idea is to guide where new developments will go at 14 of the district’s larger villages, as well as the town of Colyton.

Responses will be looked over by the council’s Strategic Planning Committee, before a final version of the plan is produced for yet another consultation.

Locations earmarked for expansion include Beer, Broadclyst, Clyst St. Mary, East Budleigh, Feniton, Kilmington, Musbury, Newton Poppleford, Sidbury, Uplyme, West Hill, Whimple, Woodbury and the town of Colyton.

The Villages Plan will show a black line – the technical term being a Built-up Area Boundary – around the villages.

Within the black line, new houses will generally be acceptable, but outside they will only be acceptable in special circumstances.

The consultation gives the public an opportunity to comment on where the lines should be drawn.

The aim of the council’s planning policy team is to ensure that the main existing built-up areas are included, together with areas that have already been agreed for development – either through planning permission or planning allocations.

A number of alternatives have already been considered, including not having boundaries, drawing boundaries more tightly or drawing them more loosely.

However, none of these options have been progressed, as they differ from the approach set out in the Local Plan which was adopted in January 2016.

Further research has been undertaken to determine whether the boundaries drawn using the council’s existing criteria should be reduced in areas where it is difficult to access local services and facilities on foot.

This approach is being proposed for Beer, Newton Poppleford, Uplyme and West Hill.

Planning permission is less likely to be granted for new housing and industry that fall into areas outside the black line, but this does not mean that these homes and businesses are not part of a village in any other way.

The Villages Plan does not affect any changes that residents could make to their homes without planning permission.

Councillor Andrew Moulding, who is Chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee, said: “We will consider all the comments that are made before producing an East Devon Villages Plan for further public consultation.

“It will then be formally submitted for consideration by an independent Inspector who will decide whether the plan is sound. It is important that we seek the views of the local communities on this plan, which will help in the determination of planning applications.”

Communities and residents have until Wednesday, September 28 to put forward any comments they wish to make on the draft plan. The Villages Plan will then be submitted for examination by a Planning Inspector.

The draft consultation Villages Plan and supporting documents are available at the council offices at Station Road, Sidmouth, in local libraries, with the relevant parish councils or online here:

http://eastdevon.gov.uk/planning/planning-policy/villages-plan/villages-plan-2016-consultation/

http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/here-s-how-these-14-east-devon-could-expand-and-how-to-have-your-say-on-it/story-29601801-detail/story.html

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East Devon Watch

Posted on

4 Aug 2016

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Affordable and Social Housing, Developers/ Development

Right- wing Tory group calls for innovative (market-oriented) solutions to housing problems

Owl thinks they want to know how to make more money out of more rented housing!

“The Tory Reform Group (TRG) has launched a public call for evidence seeking innovative policy proposals to address the two-fold challenge of availability and affordability of homes to rent and buy. The call forms part of a year-long focus on housing policy, launched at the organisation’s AGM in London on Tuesday.

TRG National Chairman, David Fazakerley, said:

“Rents are rising, home ownership is falling, and too many households are spending more than half their income on housing costs. A series of very welcome government initiatives have been launched to help people buy their first home, but there is undoubtedly more radical thinking needed to address the long-term crisis. The TRG is seeking evidence to help the Conservative Government continue stepping up to that challenge.”

The call comes as latest reports show average UK house prices have jumped by 8.1% in the past year to reach a new record high of £211,000, nearly 8 times the average UK salary. House prices in London increased 14.5% in the last year, with an average property price of £472,000.

Mr Fazakerely added:

“We are on an unsustainable path and need to think outside the box to begin turning things around. As a voluntary group, we draw on expertise from within the conservative family and from across the political spectrum to deliver a One Nation agenda in Government and I hope organisations and individuals with policy expertise will respond to this call and help shape our output over the coming year.”

The TRG was formed 41 years ago as the home of One Nation thinking within the Conservative Party, promoting policies which deliver a modern, socially liberal country pursuing a market oriented agenda that works for everyone, regardless of background.

Organisation, or individuals, wishing to submit to the call for evidence should email housing@trg.org.uk, with the first stage of the evidence call closing on September 30th 2016.”

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East Devon Watch

Posted on

2 Aug 2016

Posted under

Affordable and Social Housing, Inequality

“Home ownership in England at lowest level in 30 years as housing crisis grows”

“Home ownership in England has fallen to its lowest level in 30 years as the growing gap between earnings and property prices has created a housing crisis that extends beyond London to cities including Manchester.

The struggle to get on the housing ladder is not just a feature of the London property market, according to a new report by the Resolution Foundation thinktank, with Greater Manchester seeing as big a slump in ownership since its peak in the early 2000s as parts of the capital, and cities in Yorkshire and the West Midlands also seeing sharp drops.

Home ownership across England reached a peak in April 2003, when 71% of households owned their home, either outright or with a mortgage, but by February this year the figure had fallen to 64%, the Resolution Foundation said.

The figure is the lowest since 1986, when homeownership levels were on the way up, with a housing market boom fuelled by the deregulation of the mortgage industry and the introduction of the right-to-buy policy for council homes by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government. …

… Lindsay Judge, an expert on housing at the thinktank, said the problem was one of affordability. “House prices began to outpace earnings in the early 2000s,” Judge said. “When the market fell so did earnings – house prices began to come down but so did people’s pay, or it was stagnating at best, so few people were able to make the most of falling prices.”

The analysis showed that across England levels of private renting almost doubled from 11% in 2003 to 19% in 2015, while in Greater Manchester the figure more than trebled, from 6% to 20%.

The Resolution Foundation said this shift in tenure could mean problems in the future, as individuals would need to find a way of funding their housing in retirement, or may need to turn to the benefits system for help. Clarke said: “The shift to renting privately can reduce current living standards and future wealth, with implications for individuals and the state. We cannot allow other cities to edge towards the kind of housing crisis that London has been saddled with.”

Anne Baxendale, head of policy and public affairs at the housing charity Shelter, said house prices were now “completely out of step with average wages”.

She added: “Sky-high rents are leaving many families struggling to make ends meet each month, let alone save up enough for the deposit on a home. Far from being the stepping stone it once was, many young people and families are now facing a lifetime stuck in expensive and unstable private renting. …”n

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/aug/02/home-ownership-in-england-at-lowest-level-in-30-years-as-housing-crisis-grows

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East Devon Watch

Posted on

21 Jul 2016

Posted under

Affordable and Social Housing, Coastal communities, Dorset and Devon National Park, EDDC, West Dorset

“A Dorset and East Devon national park could help with affordable housing”

Don’t get your hopes up – East Devon District Council has already stamped on it saying it would be just awful as they would lose control of planning!

“CREATING a national park across part of Dorset and east Devon could help ensure affordable housing goes to local people, according to campaigners.

The Dorset and East Devon National Park Team gave a presentation to Lyme Regis Town Council last week – pointing out the benefits the proposals could bring to the town and west Dorset.

Richard Brown, speaking on behalf of the national park team, said the proposals could “help affordable homes stay affordable”.

He added: “I think so many communities across Dorset are passing motions recognising that this is a great opportunity for Dorset.

National parks have a good track record in promoting the provision of affordable homes and keeping such homes affordable and available for local people.”

He added: “It would help develop affordable homes and a coherent Dorset tourism strategy.”

Speaking about a national park established in the South Downs, Mr Brown said that “people now stay longer and spend more”.

Although the project could be “five or six years away”, Mr Brown pointed out that “the proposed national park for Dorset remains unfinished business”.

The team say Natural England has already undertaken a positive first assessment of the proposal submitted to them in 2013.

The team’s current proposal for a national park includes the Dorset AONB land from Lyme Regis to Blandford Forum, excluding the Dorchester area, as well as much of Purbeck and east Devon, excluding Seaton and Sidmouth. But the national park boundary has yet to be finalised.

Mr Brown added: “The environment and the economy are two halves of the same coin.

“All of Dorset would benefit from the economic stimulus a national park brings. They are not against development. They work hard through local partnerships to deliver what local people want.”

The concept of creating a national park gained the backing of some town councillors.

Cllr Derek Hallett remained cautious, urging members to “look at it very carefully”, while Cllr Jeff Scowen described the proposals as “a marvellous idea”. …”

http://www.bridportnews.co.uk/news/14627353.National_park_for_Dorset_and_east_Devon_could__quot_help_affordable_homes_stay_affordable_quot_/

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East Devon Watch

Posted on

15 Jul 2016

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Affordable and Social Housing, Council tax, Developers/ Development, Land banking

Charge council tax on unbuilt homes says Lords Committee

“The [House of Lords] Economic Affairs Committee in its report “Building more homes” has strongly recommended that the Government must lift its target by 50% and build 300,000 homes each year to tackle the housing crisis. It also suggests that Local authorities and housing associations must be freed to build substantial numbers of homes for rent and for sale.

Key findings

In their report, “Building more homes”, published today, the cross-party House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee criticises the Government’s housing policy for:

Setting a new homes target which will fail to meet the demand for new homes or moderate the rate of house price increases.

Restricting local authorities’ access to funding to build more social housing.

Creating uncertainty in the already dysfunctional housing market by frequent changes to tax rules and subsidies for house purchases, reductions in social rents, and the extension of the Right to Buy. All of these changes reduce the supply of homes for those who need low cost rental accommodation.
A narrow focus on home ownership which neglects those who rent their home.

Conclusions

The Committee makes wide-ranging recommendations to address the housing crisis, including:

Restraints on local authority borrowing should be lifted. Local authorities should be free to borrow to fund social housebuilding as they are other building programmes. This would enable local authorities to resume their historic role as one of the major builders of new homes, particularly social housing.

The current historically low cost of borrowing means local authorities could make a large contribution to building the houses we need for the future. Further, the new Prime Minister has announced that the Government will abandon their fiscal target. This paves the way to increase local authority borrowing powers.

Council tax should be charged on development that is not completed quickly. The Government’s reliance on private developers to meet its target of new homes is misguided. The private sector housebuilding market is oligopolistic with the eight largest builders building 50% of new homes. Their business model is to restrict the volume of housebuilding to maximise their profit margin. To address this the Committee recommend that local authorities are granted the power to levy council tax on developments that are not completed within a set time period.

Maximise the use of public land. The Government must take decisive steps to build on the very substantial holdings of surplus publicly owned land. The Committee recommends that a senior Cabinet minister must be given overall responsibility for identifying and coordinating the release of public land for housing, with a particular focus on providing low cost homes. The National Infrastructure Commission should oversee this process.

Local authorities should be given the power to increase planning fees. Local authorities should be able to set and vary planning fees to help fund a more efficient planning system and the upper cap on these charges should be much higher than the current limit. …”

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201617/ldselect/ldeconaf/20/20.pdf

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East Devon Watch

Posted on

15 Jul 2016

Posted under

Affordable and Social Housing, Developers/ Development

Sharp fall in house building and maintenance

“A sharp fall in housebuilding ahead of the EU referendum dragged down the construction sector in May as firms mothballed projects and delayed new work. Housing construction tumbled 3.2% during the month after edging down 0.1% in April, the biggest drop since February 2014.

Earlier this week the UK’s biggest housebuilder, Barratt, said it could reduce the rate at which it builds new homes as the company prepares for a possible slowdown following Britain’s vote to leave the EU.

The impact of an underperforming housebuilding sector on the broader industry was to drag down output by 2.1% on the previous month and by almost 2% on the previous year. Housing output has now fallen in every month this year apart from February, and things could slow further after the 23 June Brexit vote.

The latest figures from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, published earlier this week, found that buyer interest and expectations of future sales withered in the post-referendum period. Government cuts to local authority spending were also to blame for a fall in repairs and maintenance activity, highlighting the need for Theresa May’s new infrastructure ministry to boost growth.

Local authority spending on repairs and maintenance has declined sharply in real terms since the middle of 2014, mainly in response to cuts to council budgets.

In May, construction firms reported a fall in new work and repairs and maintenance by 2.6% and 1.4%, respectively. “The fall in May 2016, taken together with the strength of April’s figures, continues a longer trend of broadly flat output growth since the start of 2015,” the ONS said. “Within all new work, there were decreases in all work types, except infrastructure. The main contribution to the decrease came from private new housing.”

Chris Williamson, chief economist at financial data provider Markit, said the drop in construction output adds to “what’s looking like an ugly run of data for the sector”. “It looks like there’s worse to come; possibly much worse. Markit/CIPS PMI survey data recorded the steepest contraction of construction activity for seven years in June as projects were put on hold in the lead up to the EU referendum. Housing and commercial construction were especially badly affected,” he said.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jul/15/sharp-fall-in-uk-housebuilding-drags-down-construction-sector?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

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East Devon Watch

Posted on

14 Jul 2016

Posted under

Affordable and Social Housing, Developers/ Development, Housing (local), Infrastructure, National Planning Policy Framework, Planning System

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1 Comment

Our new Communities Minister – Sajid David

“Javid was born in Rochdale, Lancashire, one of five sons of parents of Pakistani descent. His father was a bus driver. His family moved from Lancashire to Stapleton Road, Bristol.

Javid was educated from 1981 to 1986 at Downend School, a state comprehensive near Bristol, followed by Filton Technical College from 1986 to 1988, and finally the University of Exeter from 1988 to 1991. At Exeter he studied economics and politics and became a member of the Conservative Party.

When he was twenty, Javid attended his first Conservative Party Conference and campaigned against the Thatcher government’s decision in that year to join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), calling it a “fatal mistake”.

Javid joined Chase Manhattan Bank in New York immediately after university, working mostly in South America. Aged 25, he became the youngest vice-president in the history of the bank. He returned to London in 1997, and later joined Deutsche Bank as a director in 2000. In 2004 he became a managing director at Deutsche Bank and, one year later, global head of Emerging Markets Structuring.

In 2007 he relocated to Singapore as head of Deutsche Bank’s credit trading, equity convertibles, commodities and private equity businesses in Asia, and was appointed a board member of Deutsche Bank International Limited. He left Deutsche Bank in 2009 to pursue a career in politics. His earnings at Deutsche Bank would have been roughly £3m a year at the time he left.

Javid is a trustee of the London Early Years Foundation, was a governor of Normand Croft Community School, and has led an expedition to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, to show his support of Help The Aged.”

Source: Wikipedia

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East Devon Watch

Posted on

9 Jul 2016

Posted under

Affordable and Social Housing, Developers/ Development

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1 Comment

“We need homes for older people, not just starter homes”

Unfortunately, you can only buy new “right size” housing for older people at the top end of house price market (PegasusLife upwards of £300,000 for a one-bed flat plus maintenance service charges – no care – around £5,000 per year) if you live in East Devon, thanks to EDDC needing more and more money to pay for its new HQ – now coming in at around £10m.

…”Our report, Housing our ageing population: positive ideas – brought together for us by the Housing Learning and Improvement Network – points out that the government gets multiple benefits from enabling older people to enjoy better health and wellbeing in new homes. These include significant savings in NHS and social care spending. And those who have moved into age-exclusive, attractive new homes talk not just of the savings in outgoings – and often the release of cash to spend on other things – but the social life that banishes loneliness too.

So why is the UK so different from the US and most other European countries in terms of its housing output for those of us in our extended middle age? Why are we averse to moving until a health crisis forces us out when an earlier move could ensure our independence, in a place of our choosing, for the rest of our days? …

… As well as recommendations for housebuilders, developers and housing associations, our report urges all of us to reimagine life as we grow older, considering our future needs in a positive light. Right-sizing can help us gain the most in our later years and we need to insist – not just for ourselves but for our children and grandchildren – that barriers are lifted and opportunities enhanced for a national programme of later homes. “

https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2016/jun/14/later-homes-older-starter-young-uk-housebuilding

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East Devon Watch

Posted on

8 Jul 2016

Posted under

Affordable and Social Housing, Developers/ Development

Parliament starts inquiry into housebuilding capacity

“The Communities and Local Government Committee has launched an inquiry into the capacity of the housebuilding industry to meet demand for new homes.

Inquiry: Capacity in the homebuilding industry
Communities and Local Government Committee
Purpose of the inquiry
The Committee is expected to invite the chief executives of major developers to give evidence.

Other areas to be covered by the inquiry include the role of small and medium-sized developers, the skills, size and sustainability of the workforce, the planning process and development finance.

The Committee also considers innovative ways of overcoming constraints on the industry, such as self-builds, off-site construction and direct commissioning by central Government.

The Committee is likely to invite ministers and representatives of industry bodies, the Homes and Communities Agency, local authorities and housing associations to give evidence in public. Skills and training experts, members of the off-site construction and self-build sectors and debt and equity financiers are also expected to be called.

Terms of reference

The Committee invites submissions of evidence on the following issues:

whether the numbers of builders and types of firms in the homebuilding industry is sufficient to meet housing demand

the structure of the homebuilding industry, in particular the role of small and medium-sized developers

housebuilders’ business models and how risk and uncertainty affect incentives to expand

the sustainability, size and skills of the building industry workforce
why fewer homes are being started and completed than the number of planning permissions being granted

the extent to which current planning approaches cause delays to the building of new homes

innovative approaches to increasing the housing supply, for example self-build, off-site construction and direct commissioning by central government and local housing companies

the role of development finance and how it can promote or constrain housing investment

The Committee would be grateful to receive written submissions by 12 September 2016. …

… Clive Betts MP, Chair of the Committee, said:

“The capacity of the homebuilding industry is a key factor in housing supply, which is simply not keeping up with demand and has left us in the midst of a crisis.

The Committee will cast a critical eye over the major homebuilders, examine the decline of small and medium-sized developers and look closely at the skills shortages, planning delays and finance issues hampering the industry.

Our wide-ranging inquiry will also explore alternative models, such as self-builds and off-site construction, to see if such innovative approaches to homebuilding can help address the country’s housing needs.”

http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/communities-and-local-government-committee/news-parliament-2015/homebuilding-launch-16-17/

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East Devon Watch

Posted on

6 Jul 2016

Posted under

Accountability, Affordable and Social Housing, Bovis, Developers/ Development, EDDC, Regeneration

Bovis and Seaton affordable housing – a long and winding road

Below is a report of the original discussion EDDC had in July 2013 about affordable housing on the (then) Tesco site. It should be notec that, though “overage” was discussed and apparently agreed at this meeting, the requirement was subsequently dropped, though no explanation was given for this:

“… Tesco has petitioned for the removal of all the affordable housing on its site to make it more saleable, as it has many problems associated with the infilling of the site which mean that only certain types of houses can be built and fewer of them.

“What I say below is a personal opinion only and reflects my layperson understanding of the debate.

The DMC heard from myself [Sandra Semple] and Paul Arnott: there were no representatives of the town council in attendance. District Councillor Peter Burrows was in attendance earlier in the day as a member of the DMC but left before this item. District Councillor Steph Jones appeared in her capacity as Deputy Portfolio Holder for Housing.

Members of the committee appeared strongly of the view that Tesco was going a step too far. They particularly disliked the comment from the company’s agent that if EDDC did not agree to what they wanted, they would appeal. Some thought this was unacceptable pressure. One member of the committee noted that no affordable housing has been built in Seaton for many, many years and if this reduction was allowed other developers in the town would think they should have the same treatment.

Mr Freeman (I forget what title he has these days) pointed out that there was a mistake in calculations in the documentation (not sure whose fault) and that whereas it had been stated that the company might sustain a loss of over £2 million if affordable housing were included, the real amount on the figures provided was more like £750,000.

It was suggested that this application was a good candidate for EDDC’s new policy of “overage” and here I get a little fuzzy about what they mean – and to be fair so did some of the members of the committee. However, what it appears (to me) to be is that yes, Tesco will be allowed to take out the affordable housing BUT EDDC will put in place an overage clause which says that when the potential loss has been recovered (i.e. after the £750,000 loss has been taken into account – or whatever the correct figure is) then EDDC will take a percentage of the profit thereafter. This means, as I understand it, that, say, Tesco sells the site for £5 million, then they ignore the first £750,000 and the remaining profit is then split between EDDC and Tesco. The EDDC lawyer in attendance could not remember what the percentages agreed were but I have looked it up and the default allowed in the new policy is 50% each but EDDC has the option to increase this percentage if it sees paperwork which shows that the profit could be extremely high.

This only applies to the current planning application. If the site is still vacant when the current planning application runs out then everything has to be renegotiated including the S106 agreements and percentage of affordable housing.

Throughout the afternoon several members of the committee (perhaps with an eye to the next election) said that the economic climate was improving and that this meant that Tesco has less to worry about.

https://sidmouthindependentnews.wordpress.com/2013/08/21/seaton-eddc-votes-to-share-the-profits-with-tesco-but-no-affordable-housing-on-the-site/

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