Category Archives: Developers/ Development

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28 Sep 2018

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Accountability, Developers/ Development, Housing (local)

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“The government set a target of 300,000 new homes a year but weakening demand means that construction is slowing”

“England is building 21 per cent fewer homes than during a peak in 2007 as the government struggles to reach its target of 300,000 homes a year.

Figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government showed that housebuilders started work on 38,730 homes in England on a seasonally adjusted basis in the three months to the end of June. This is down from 48,920 in the first three months of 2007. However, it was 126 per cent higher than a low of 17,120 in the first quarter of 2009, in the depth of the financial crisis.

Conversions — for example, turning an office block into flats — also count toward the 300,000 target. When these are included, the figures show that there were 217,350 “additional dwellings” in England in 2016-17, a ten-year high. However, the number of housing starts for new homes is still declining, suggesting that a higher total figure may not be achieved this year. Compared with the previous quarter, the number of housing starts fell by 3.7 per cent from 40,200 in the three months to March and by 4.1 per cent from a year earlier.

Hansen Lu, of Capital Economics, said that demand was weakening. Analysts believe that buyers are starting to hold back because of uncertainty about what Brexit will do to the economy.

“With starts having fallen in four of the last five quarters, the big picture is that housing construction is on a gentle, downward trajectory,” he added. “We expect builders to slow construction further over the rest of 2018, rather than run the risk of building homes they cannot sell.”

The government figures were contested by property analysts and housebuilding groups, and have been discredited by the UK Statistics Authority, because they are compiled through local planning departments. These have been seen to be less reliable in recent years because the planners do not always receive information from all builders in their area.”

Source: Times, paywall

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27 Sep 2018

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Accountability, Affordable and Social Housing, Developers/ Development, Housing (local)

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“First-time buyers: average salary requirement rises 18% in UK cities”

Remember when we were told that Help to Buy was for first-time buyers? We were sold a pup – it was for many-time developers!

“The average salary required by a first-time buyer to purchase a home in the UK’s biggest cities has risen by 18% in the past three years, above the rate of earnings growth – making it harder for young people to get on the housing ladder.

London house prices post first annual fall since 2009

In the latest sign that homeownership was becoming an increasingly distant prospect for young adults in the UK, figures from the research company Hometrack showed only three out of 20 major cities had become more affordable since 2015.

The biggest drop in affordability in the past three years was in Bristol and Manchester, where rapid growth in house prices had pushed up the average wage needed by a first-time buyer by almost a quarter.

In Bristol, a first-time buyer now needed to earn £58,826 per year to afford the average property, compared with £47,283 three years ago; while Manchester has seen the salary requirement jump by more than £6,500 to £34,770.

It has also become harder for first-time buyers to purchase a property in cities that include Leicester, Birmingham and Nottingham, with home values rising by more than the rate of growth in earnings over the past three years. …”

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/sep/27/first-time-buyers-average-salary-requirement-rises-in-uk-cities

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25 Sep 2018

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Affordable and Social Housing, Developers/ Development, Inequality

“England has more than 200,000 empty homes. How to revive them?”

“Ask most people about England’s epidemic of empty homes and they are likely to think of lavish vacant mansions in London owned by absent foreign billionaires.

In fact, the majority of empty properties are in post-industrial areas, where poverty rates are high and house prices languish well below their pre-crash levels. Such a place is Stockton-on-Tees, near Middlesbrough, where Martyn Jones lives.

Two years ago Jones, 23, was homeless and relying on friends to let him sleep on their couches while he struggled to find work. Today, he is painting a wall in a gutted home on a quiet street, part of a group tasked with refurbishing some of the area’s many vacant, derelict homes.

Last week, Theresa May pledged an extra £2bn for housing associations to fund large-scale developments. But with new house building not providing enough affordable homes for more than 1 million people on waiting lists in England, social enterprises and councils are trying to bring empty homes, which number well over 200,000 and are worth almost £50bn, back into occupancy.

Over 11,000 homes have stood empty for at least 10 years, data shows

One of them is Community Campus 87, which buys such properties in Stockton-on-Tees, refurbishes them and offers them to previously homeless tenants at rents below the going rate for social housing. In the process, it provides jobs and skills training for people such as Jones.

Having left school at 16, Jones struggled with substance use and anxiety, unable to hold down a job. When his mother kicked him out, he worried he was out of options. “I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for Campus,” he says. “They gave me a home, helped me along the way and now I’ve started going to college.”

Amid a dramatic national collapse in apprenticeships, about 15% of Community Campus’ staff are apprentices, according to its director and founder, Simon Virth. The group, which has refurbished about 250 homes so far, also offers help with job interviews, jobcentre appointments and finding free educational programmes at local colleges.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/25/england-has-more-than-200000-empty-homes-how-to-revive-them?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

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25 Sep 2018

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Audit (EDDC), Austerity cuts, Business Rates, Developers/ Development, EDDC, High Street decline

Resuscitating high streets – or are they too far gone already?

Owl is noticing more and more empty shops – even in places that seemed to be weathering the High Street decline so far (eg Sidmouth).

Isn’t it time our council did an audit of our high streets (empty shops, open shops, temporary pop-up shops, local-owned independent, chain stores, charity shops) to get a proper idea of just how bad this problem is in each town and what the mix says about the health of each town centre? And time to come up with a strategy for their future?

“… Charges to withdraw money from cash machines would be scrapped under a Labour government to “save Britain’s high streets”.

Attempts to stop their “slow agonising death” were announced by shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey with a range of measures – including stopping Post Office closures.

Sky News can reveal Labour would draw up a register of landlords of empty shops in every local authority.

And the party would deliver free public wi-fi in town centres, for those having a coffee or working in community spaces.

The plans are due to be announced on Tuesday by Ms Bailey at Labour’s autumn conference in Liverpool.

She is aiming to boost support for the party in British towns, as leader Jeremy Corbyn suggested a general election could be called imminently.

Brexit secretary Dominic Raab insisted on Sunday that “it’s not going to happen”.

Research by Which? published in June found that the free-to-use ATM network was “under threat”.

The idea to ban them was championed by Labour MP Ged Killen, who welcomed the party’s announcement.

“No one should ever have to pay to access their own money,” he told Sky News.

“If any government is serious about economic development in our towns and high streets they need to protect the financial infrastructure people and business rely on.”

The other plans would see post offices owned by the government stopped from further franchising and closing.

Under-25s will also get free bus travel in local authorities where local bus services are either franchised or publicly owned.

Labour has also promised to “work with” councils to extend wi-fi roll-outs by commercial developers in public spaces.

And it will force shop landlords to make their identity and contact details public, creating an empty shop register to “make it easier to bring empty units into use”.

A new annual business rates re-evaluation will also be introduced. …”

https://news.sky.com/story/labour-would-scrap-atm-charges-in-bid-to-save-high-streets-11507872

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25 Sep 2018

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Accountability, Developers/ Development, NHS (local), Privatisation

Hospital re-nationalised after PFI shambles

“The government is expected to bail out Liverpool’s new £335 million NHS hospital and take it back into public ownership, nine months after the failure of Carillion left the project in crisis.

Carillion, the public sector contracting and construction group, collapsed in the new year with £2.6 billion of pension liabilities and £2 billion of debts.

Matthew Hancock, the health secretary, is understood to have told officials to end the impasse surrounding the hospital, which had been due to open last year. He is ready to say within days that the Royal Liverpool Hospital private finance initiative deal is being cancelled and that the project is returning to full public ownership, according to Sky News.

The trust that runs the hospital is due to hold a board meeting today and a statement from ministers may be timed to coincide with it. Private sector contracts relating to the project are set to expire before the end of the month.”

Source Times (pay wall)

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24 Sep 2018

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Cranbrook, Developers/ Development, EDDC

EDDC objects to second large retail planning application near Cranbrook

This one on the site of the current police HQ at Middlemoor. Exeter City Council is recommending refusal due to the high volume of traffic it would cause. It seems EDDC has no such worries for traffic at a large supermarket in Cranbrook.

… “An objection was also received from East Devon District Council as any approval for a bulky goods retail uses and the proposed food could be accommodated within Cranbrook town centre and so it is a sequentially preferable location, adding: “The development is likely to have a significant detrimental impact on Cranbrook town centre contrary to national planning guidance.” …”

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/plans-new-retail-park-police-2038531

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21 Sep 2018

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Developers/ Development, Greater Exeter, Housing (local)

“Fewer households will ‘reduce need for new homes’ “

Will the number of extra houses predicated for the Greater Exeter area (57,000] be reduced in line with these new findings? Of course not – develipers rule, OK!

“There are likely to be 1.4 million fewer households in England by 2041 than the government originally thought, a forecast that economists warned yesterday could have a big impact on housebuilding targets.

The Office for National Statistics said that the number of households in England was projected to grow by 159,000 a year, from 22.9 million in 2016 to 26.9 million by 2041.

The figures are used by the government to work out future housing needs and have been a key reason for its target of building 250,000 to 300,000 homes a year.

This is the first year that the projections have been calculated by the ONS rather than by a government department.

A large proportion of the growth will come from the rising elderly population. Households headed by someone aged 65 years and over are set to account for 88 per cent of total growth between 2016 and 2041. The highest growth is set to take place in London and the lowest in the northeast.

However, while this overall 17 per cent increase in households may seem large, it is significantly smaller than the projection made in 2014. Then, the government said that there would be an extra 210,000 households a year in England, resulting in 28 million homes by 2041.

Bidwells, a property consultancy, said that the latest projections would lead to a dramatic drop in the required number of homes in England.

Ian Mulheirn, director of consulting at Oxford Economics, said that the drop in projections demonstrated that there were several myths around Britain’s housing shortage and argued that it was not necessary to build 300,000 homes a year.

“Over the last 20 years, the various housing departments have used a methodology to predict household need that was flawed,” he said. “It predicted that a significantly higher number of households would form and it was consistently shown to be incorrect at each census point.

“The ONS has changed the methodology and if we had used their figures over the last 20 years we wouldn’t have this figure of extremely high housing need being quoted everywhere.”

Previous projections made by the government were based on census data starting in 1971, which showed household sizes steadily shrinking as more people chose to live alone or to have smaller families. But this trend stopped around 2001, which is when the ONS is now basing its projections from.

The latest figures were disputed, however. Matthew Spry, senior director at Lichfields, a property consultancy, said: “The number of households that have formed can only ever match the number of dwellings that there are for people to live in. Statistically a household cannot form if it doesn’t have an extra house to form into.”

The ONS has also made a new assumption for net migration. It is now projected to be 152,000 a year from mid-2023 onwards. The 2014 projection had assumed 170,500 a year.

Joanna Harkrader, of the Office for National Statistics, said that the slower growth reflected “lower projections of the population — notably assumptions around future births, how long we will live and migration — and more up-to-date figures about living arrangements, such as living with parents or cohabiting.”

Source: Times (pay wall)

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20 Sep 2018

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Affordable and Social Housing, Conflict of interest, Developers/ Development, Housing (local), Spin

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The big 2022 “social housing” con

“… May’s rabbit-in-the-hat was an additional 2bn funding for affordable housing. Considering the scale of the crisis, this is almost pitiful. It will build just 40,000 new affordable homes, when we have a need for more than a million. And the funding itself won’t be available until 2022, at which point are very likely to have a different government and/or prime minister. …

… For a number of years, big housing associations have been behaving more and more like private developers. May was quite right yesterday when she said they are ‘major multi-billion pound businesses’. And as the number of homes they build increases, their new model is proving so lucrative that private providers, pension funds and other investors are coming along for the ride, reinventing themselves as ‘affordable housing developers’, seeing a clear business opportunity for doing something that apparently has a social purpose.

But the homes they are building are not the houses we need, and the social purpose is often harder and harder to see. By far the greatest need is for social housing, and we are building the lowest levels of that since the Second World War, despite the pretty high housing outputs of housing associations. …

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/social-housing-theresa-may-housing-crisis_uk_5ba3bfbce4b0375f8f9af692

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19 Sep 2018

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Cranbrook, DCC, Developers/ Development, Police (local), Transport (local)

“Police admit loophole stops speeding drivers from being prosecuted on roads in Cranbrook”

Cranbrook a NEW development? Some of the houses there are 4 or more years old!

“Drivers on some of new roads in Devon cannot be prosecuted for speeding, police have admitted.

Numerous roads running off London Road in Cranbrook are yet to be officially adopted by Devon County Council therefore leaving housing developers responsible for managing them.

This means that Devon and Cornwall Police is unable to enforce speeding restrictions around the town on roads that are unadopted and do not have street lights.

“For speed enforcement to occur, a valid Traffic Regulation Order needs to be in place,” said Ch Insp Leisk.

“This is prepared by the local authority post adoption. When conducting speed detection activity, we would always confirm the validity of the TRO.

“The other occasion where a road speed limit is always 30mph is when street lighting is present less than 200 metres apart. Unless posted otherwise, this is always a 30mph limit.

“A street layout would always be agreed with the local Highway Authority, in this case Devon County Council, prior to build as part of the planning process.”

Concerns were raised at a recent Cranbrook Town Council meeting with Cllr Ray Bloxham telling members that police would not enforce the 30mph limit on unadopted roads.

He added that the Devon County Council task group was looking at speeding on Devon’s roads.

Cllr Kevin Blakey, chairman of Cranbrook Town Council, told Devon Live that his understanding was that all aspects of the Road Traffic Act apply on all of the town’s roads.

He said: “It is true that the majority of the roads in Cranbrook have yet to be adopted, and this is usual for most new developments.

“However, the supposition that speed limits and other regulations do not apply is incorrect.

“The Road Traffic Act and associated regulations apply in full and without exception to all roads to which the public have access.”

However, Ch Insp Adrian Leisk clarified that while certain aspects of the act do apply – such as needing insurance and a valid licence – police are not in a position to be able to prosecute speeding.

He said: “Elements of the Road Traffic Act apply such as insurance, standards of driving, wearing seat belts and not using a mobile phone.

“These all are applicable as the offence is committed on a road – there is a legal definition of road.

“The setting of speed limits are always detailed in the TRO, the lack of which could be relied upon in an individual’s defence.”

A spokesperson for Devon County Council said: “Because the roads have not been adopted, and so are not managed by DCC, the responsibility rests with the Cranbrook Consortium for main roads that link with London Road, and the relevant housing development companies manage the roads in their sections of development that connect to the main Cranbrook roads.”

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/police-admit-loophole-stops-speeding-2018242

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19 Sep 2018

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Accountability, Affordable and Social Housing, Austerity cuts, Developers/ Development, Housing (local), Inequality, Spin

Buying votes with new social housing – but only after 2022!

Throughout this government’s term those in social housing have been demonised as scroungers and workshy. The government instead chose to line the pockets of already-rich developers and people being helped to buy houses that cost up to £600,000.

Today, as Brexit continues to be a shambles, education is at breaking point, inequality is at its widest, the environment is being trashed and the NHS is on its knees, May announces that, in fact, people in council houses are mostly hard-working people trying desperately to make ends meet. And that occupying such housing should not be a “stigma”!

So what changed?

Nothing, except that more and more people are deserting her party and their votes are, of course, going with them – to people like Claire Wright, for example. And to other feisty independent councillors such as East Devon Alliance’s Gardner, Rixon, Jung and Shaw.

Read the fine print on this housing. It is not promised until 2022 – when Tories may well not be in power and when our economic climate could be very different.

And if you want to know who thinks social housing is a stigma, read here:

“… Housing Secretary James Brokenshire, asked who Mrs May saw as the politicians who “look down” on social housing, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think it’s more a sort of a greater public perception, sadly.”

Pressed further if there are Conservative politicians who take this view, Mr Brokenshire again referred to a “general stigma” which he said was a feeling among tenants who were consulted for a Government policy paper. … “

http://www.itv.com/news/2018-09-19/pm-to-push-for-social-housing-reform-amid-second-rate-citizen-stigma-concern/

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18 Sep 2018

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Accountability, Affordable and Social Housing, Austerity cuts, Developers/ Development, Housing (local), Land banking, Sleaze

“Landowners Pocket £13bn Profit In One Year Just For Getting Planning Permission”

Is there an election in the air? Tories talking about removing the “stigma” of social housing! You know, the housing they don’t build because, as George Osborne said – why would you when Labour supporters live in them!

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tories-refused-to-build-social-housing-because-it-would-create-labour-voters-nick-clegg-says-a7223796.html

“Landowners pocketed a staggering £13bn in profit last year simply for securing planning permission while a housing crisis continues to grip the nation.

Research by the Centre for Progressive Policy and the National Housing Federation has unmasked how land-holders are raising massive sums simply for being a proprietor.

Agricultural land now becomes 275 times more expensive once it receives planning permission, even before a single home is built. This is a huge uplift from just two years ago when planning permission increased the value of farmland by around 100 times.

It means proprietors are effectively sitting on a goldmine once planners green-light development on a site they own.

The CPP and NHF report found landowners’ combined profits were more than the global profits of Amazon, McDonald’s and Coca Cola combined and has increased by £4bn over the course of two years to reach £13bn.

Theresa May is due to announce that £2bn of Government funds will be directed towards housing associations to give them long-term certainty they need to build homes.

But the NHF and CPP say a radical overhaul is needed so some land sales profits can be captured and ploughed into the public purse for new affordable housing and infrastructure, such as roads.

David Orr, chief executive of the NHS, said: “This research shows the astronomical sums that landowners have been able to pocket, before they even build a single new home. At the same time, the numbers of people in desperate need of social housing is sky rocketing – we have to build 90,000 new homes for social rent every year to meet this need.

“In the face of a disastrous housing crisis, it is clear that the the broken housing market is simply not delivering. What’s more, the way we buy and sell land is the key cause. Now, we need a fundamental rethink to tackle this fundamental problem.”

It comes as house prices and demand for social homes soar, with housing associations trying to build council housing for poorer families increasingly outbid on land by private developers.

May, who will address the National Housing Federation Summit in London on Wednesday, said the £2bn will be separate to the £9bn of public funding put toward the existing affordable homes programme until 2022.

She will also focus on ending what she calls the “stigma” attached to social housing, claiming some view tenants are “not second-rate citizens”.

The PM will say: “Some residents feel marginalised and overlooked, and are ashamed to share the fact that their home belongs to a housing association or local authority.

“On the outside, many people in society – including too many politicians – continue to look down on social housing and, by extension, the people who call it their home.”

Gavin Smart, deputy chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing, said recognition of the social housing sector from the PM was welcome, and added: “But, as the Prime Minister recognises in her speech, it’s crucial that government investment helps housing associations to build the right kind of homes at the right prices.

“In practice this means building more homes at the lowest social rents – which is often the only truly affordable option for people on lower incomes.”

Labour also hit out at the Government plans.

John Healey, Shadow Housing Secretary, said: “Theresa May’s promises fall far short of what’s needed.

“The reality is spending on new affordable homes has been slashed so the number of new social rented homes built last year fell to the lowest level since records began.”

The English housing survey 2016/17 reported that 3.9 million households, approximately nine million people, lived in the social rented sector – which was 17% of households in the country.

The survey added 10% rented from housing associations and 7% from local authorities.

By contrast, 20% of households were private rented and 63% owner-occupied.”

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/landowners-pocket-ps13bn-profit-in-one-year-just-for-getting-planning-permission_uk_5ba12638e4b046313fbfe3ee

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18 Sep 2018

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Accountability, Axminster, Developers/ Development, Feniton/ Talaton, Housing (local), Wainhomes

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Wainhomes in the (bad) spotlight again

Many will recall Feniton’s problems with Wainhomes, for example:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2016/05/31/wainhomes-feniton-another-second-chance-and-another-and-another/

and those in Axminster:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2016/07/26/wainhomes-axminster-eddc-considers-legal-action-to-recover/

You might also have seen the feature on regional BBC Breakfast this morning where residents at the Wainhomes estate in Tawton having to move out because floors not finished, outside rendering falling off walls. They interviewed one unhappy house owner who’d been complaining for two-and-a-half years.

Interestingly enough there’s a website devoted to complaints about this company: https://www.thewainhomesnightmare.co.uk/?page_id=121

It seems to highlight a flaw whereby developers can build defective houses, but policing by NHBC not up to scratch.

Buyer beware, as they say!

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17 Sep 2018

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Asset sweating, Coastal communities, Developers/ Development, EDDC, Sidmouth/ Sidford/ Sidbury

Community attempt to save Sidmouth Drill Hall

“Gillian Mitchell has set up a not-for-profit community interest company (CIC) called Sidmouth Sunrise as part of a bid to transform the space into a community hub.

The mum-of-two says she wanted to take on the project to tackle a gap in facilities in the town.

Gillian told the Herald: “The strength of community feeling within Sidmouth is what makes our town and local area a vibrant place to live in.

“The worrying thing is that we have no significant population of young single people, which implies that the youngsters are moving away when they leave education.

“We want to do something to increase the attractiveness of Sidmouth to this age group and encourage a more balanced population and create a sustainable vibrant community.

“We are serious about what we are doing. We really want to make sure that we have it right; we have to make sure this is feasible.”

Sidmouth Sunrise has also gained backing from Real Ideas Organisation (RIO) of Plymouth, which will serve as a consultant and funding partner.

Gillian says RIO has ‘vast experience’ in breathing new life into redundant buildings to bring them to community use and will be able to provide support and advice to manage their own projects.

Sunrise Sidmouth has carried out a structural survey and is consulting architects about final designs, before holding public meetings.

Gillian, who is chairman of the organisation, says she is looking to work collaboratively to put in the strongest bid to Exeter-based agent JLL.

She said: “We’re not aware of any other community bids that are being put together and if there is, my group would like to work together rather than have multiple community bids.

“We are really up to talking to anybody and get behind one bid.

“We’re not going to please everybody, and it is quite a small space. I do not want to be in competition with my own community.

“If we are successful with our bid, all funds and profits will be reinvested into securing the future of the Drill Hall and future similar projects.”

EDDC has given community groups six months to develop their ideas. The commercial property sector will have three months to prepare their proposals, with all bids to be submitted to JLL by February 4.”

http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/first-community-bid-comes-forward-to-transform-sidmouth-s-drill-hall-into-community-hub-1-5693614

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17 Sep 2018

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

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“Increases in land value is ‘fundamentally about fairness’ and should benefit local communities, say MPs”

Owl says: chances of this happening in these developer-led days – zero,

“Significant increases in the value of land resulting from public policy decisions should be shared with local communities say MPs.

The report from the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee has looked at how this land value increase can be captured to generate extra funding for local infrastructure and affordable housing.

According to government statistics, agricultural land which is granted planning permission for residential use would increase, on average, from £21,000 per hectare to £1.95m per hectare.

The Land Value Capture report published yesterday argues that local authorities and central government should capture a “significant proportion” of this uplift in value so they can reinvest into local communities.
The report recommends reform of the Land Compensation Act 1961 which they say would lead to a “much-needed” boost in housebuilding.

Chair of the committee Clive Betts said: “Land value capture is fundamentally about fairness and necessity.

“Fairness, because the current system allows landowners, through no effort of their own, to make multi-million-pound profits from the substantial increases in land value that arise from public policy decisions, such as the granting of planning permission.

“As these increases are significantly created by the actions of the state, it is right that a significant proportion of this should be shared with the local community.”

The committee argues that there is scope for raising additional revenue from reforms to taxes and charges, new mechanisms of land value capture and reform of the way local authorities can buy land.

In response to the report, Local Government Association’s Housing spokesman Cllr Martin Tett said: “We have long–called for reforms to land compensation and compulsory purchase laws and are pleased that the committee has called for the government to implement several of our recommendations.
“We are also pleased the committee recommends that government provides extra support to councils, through the LGA, to help give local authorities a strong hand in negotiations with developers.

“Government action on these recommendations would have a significant impact in building more homes with the right infrastructures and places that people want to live and work.”

Betts added: “If the government is to meet the challenge of providing enough new homes over the coming years, then they will also need to find the funds for improving the surrounding infrastructure.

“Our proposed package of reforms to taxes and charges will ensure a fair proportion of the increase in value arising from public policy decisions can be used by national and local government to invest in new infrastructure and public services.”

http://www.publicsectorexecutive.com/Public-Sector-News/increases-in-land-value-is-fundamentally-about-fairness-and-should-benefit-local-communities-say-mps

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16 Sep 2018

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Cornwall, Developers/ Development, Dorset, Great South West Partnership, Local Enterprise Partnership, Local Government Finance, Scrutiny, Somerset, Transparency

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Greater South West Local Enterprise Partnership – partnership!

Another GREAT to add to GREATER EXETER – the GREAT South West Partnership!

For this one, Dorset now holds the purse strings (thanks to Oliver Letwin?) but developer Steve Hindley still holds on to the Chairmanship. Somerset County Council seems to have lost its financial control role – hardly surprising now it’s in a financial crisis.

And all still unelected, unaccountable and non-transparent.

Rather confusingly, in one part of the press release there is a reference to high productivity in this new LEP region but then it goes on to say: “When productivity in the South West matches current levels in the South East, the region will add more than £18 billion a year to the UK economy.” Do they really expect it to overtake the south-east? They could just as well have said “when productivity in the region the region overtakes China it will add £18 trillion to the UK economy”!

“Press release from Heart of the South West, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, and Dorset Local Enterprise Partnerships:

A campaign to highlight the South West’s economic potential and make the case for Government investment on a par with other UK regions has been launched at Westminster.

An alliance of business leaders, local authorities and higher education chiefs formally launched its Great South West vision that aims to put the South West on the UK economic map, to Parliament.

The delegation of the Heart of the South West, Dorset and Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly LEPs (Local Enterprise Partnerships) were in London to promote the South West’s economic development ambitions.

They are calling on the government to give their vision for growth the same high-profile backing as other initiatives like the Northern Powerhouse and the Midlands Engine.

Great South West Partnership Chair & Chair of the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership, Steve Hindley CBE DL said: “The Great South West already has an economy twice the size of Greater Manchester’s and the West Midlands’. We have the largest building project in Europe underway at Hinkley Point C, as well as unrivalled natural assets that attract more visitors than anywhere outside London.

“This partnership stands out from the other UK public-led economic partnerships, as ours heavily backed by the business and university sector, and by working together we have the benefit of scale that gives us the chance to really show what we can do, given the right backing from Government.

“We’re now on the verge transformational growth in productivity, and we’re looking forward to realising our full potential and increasing our contribution to the UK economy on the back of increasing the prosperity of our local communities and businesses.”

Mark Duddridge, Chair of the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly LEP, said: “The government’s recent review of LEPs acknowledged their vital role in developing ambitious strategies for growth and driving investment and job creation.

“The Great South West is about cross-LEP collaboration on a shared agenda, such as transport and infrastructure that can deliver real growth in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly as well as the wider South West.”

Dorset LEP Chair, Jim Stewart, said: “The South West economy is nationally significant and is larger than any combined authority – double the size of both Greater Manchester and West Midlands.

“Yet we are not receiving the same financial investment from the government as these regions.

“Our Great South West alliance of regional business leaders, academic heads and local authorities is determined to win backing for our plans that will put the region on the economic map.”

In July a government review of LEPs said the partnerships played a crucial role in ‘supercharging’ economic growth and the delivery of its Industrial Strategy.

Representatives from the three LEPs met with South West’s MPs at a meeting in Westminster to launch Great South West.

The MPs received a presentation, which set out the economic significance of the region.

In addition to having double the size economy of Greater Manchester and West Midlands, Great South West also contributes more to UK Gross Value Added than both Thames Gateway and Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford corridor.

It also has a bigger productivity than both the Northern Powerhouse and Midlands Engine but lags behind the English average.

When productivity in the South West matches current levels in the South East, the region will add more than £18 billion a year to the UK economy.

In addition, the South West is home to the single largest infrastructure project in Europe – the new Hinkley Point nuclear power plant in Somerset, which will generate billions of pounds worth of new business opportunities.

Tourism is a huge industry, with the region attracting more visitors than anywhere outside London.

And the region is also home to the largest aerospace sector in the UK, with pioneering automotive, nuclear and marine renewables and microelectronics industries. It also has a growing creative and digital sector.

Dorset West MP Sir Oliver Letwin worked with the LEPs on arranging the meeting with members of Parliament. He said: “This meeting provided a great opportunity for south west MPs to be properly briefed about this exciting proposition, which could grow to deliver a significant step-change in productivity for the south west.

“It is highly encouraging to see the diversity and number of stakeholders, even at this early stage – with Local Enterprise Partnerships, local authorities, universities, the CBI, Chambers of Commerce and many others all involved in the Great South West project.

“I hope that this project can continue to move forward with ever increasing momentum, and to help further realise the extraordinary economic potential of the South West.”

The Great South West partnership faces a number of challenges, including transport and connectivity, large dispersed populations and some of the country’s most deprived areas. This results in low productivity.

To tackle these challenges Great South West is calling the government to support it to improve transport connectivity and strategic routes, drive productivity in trade and build supply chains and increase economic connectivity in the rural sector.

A letter has been sent to James Brokenshire MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, to seek formal government support and investment for Great South West.”

https://heartofswlep.co.uk/news/great-south-west-set-rival-northern-powerhouse-midlands-engine/

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15 Sep 2018

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Cranbrook, Developers/ Development, East Devon economy, EDDC, Greater Exeter, High Street decline

Another blow to a new Cranbrook town centre?

A large shopping centre development at Sowton was recently turned down by Exeter City Council because it did not fit in with their vision for local centres in the large new housing developments springing up in that area. The scheme called for an out-of-town shopping centre with the likes of Next, Boots, etc.

The developer, rather than appealing the decision, has swiftly withdrawn the original plans and submitted a revised application, thus avoiding the hefty cost of submitting new plans.

They now say they will (possibly) include a post office, pharmacy and gym and maybe other smaller retail elements. This, they feel, fulfills the requirement for a more local feel to the plans.

Whether Exeter City Council agrees with this, or if an appeal is successful if they still reject it remains to be seen.

But it certainly puts a damper on those retail ventures willing to open up in secondary, nearby areas such as Cranbrook and those developers willing to take a chance on anything but (highly profitable) housing.

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14 Sep 2018

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Accountability, Developers/ Development, Neighbourhood Plans, NPPF, Planning System

How neighbourhood plans died

Concluding paragraph of the article:

“The new Framework introduces a two-tier hierarchy of policies: strategic and non-strategic. Strategic policies may be contained in either a development plan or a spatial development strategy made by combined authorities and mayoral combined authorities. The National Planning Policy Guidance still states that “A neighbourhood plan attains the same legal status as the Local Plan once it has been approved at a referendum.” [15] but such plans are now in fact doomed to occupy a permanent state of permanent relegation in the second tier of this new planning policy hierarchy.”

http://localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=36521%3Areflections-on-the-revised-nppf&catid=63&Itemid=31

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13 Sep 2018

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Affordable and Social Housing, Austerity cuts, Developers/ Development, Land banking, Land Supply, Planning System

“Ireland sets up land agency as anger grows at housing shortage”

“… Despite being left with a surplus of houses after a 2008 property crash cut values in half, Ireland has been falling far short of the 35,000 new builds analysts say are needed annually just to keep up with demand from an economy and population growing faster than any other in the European Union.

Modelled on similar bodies in Germany and the Netherlands, the Land Development Agency (LDA) will be tasked with opening up land owned by local authorities, state departments, semi state bodies or in some cases the private sector to build 150,000 new homes over the next 20 years.

“We are acknowledging the reality that some of the sites that are causing this issue are in the ownership of public bodies,” Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe told a news conference.

“The adoption of a more pro-active land management role by the state is critical to solving the current housing crisis and creating downward pressure on land prices.”

Land for 3,000 units has already been secured from state bodies by the LDA, the government said, including, for example, by moving the country’s central mental health facility out of a Dublin suburb more suited to the construction of houses.

“Ireland has a poor history of managing its land in a sustainable way. This has resulted in inefficient use, sprawl and volatile price cycles,” Dermot O’Leary, chief economist at Goodbody Stockbrokers wrote in a note.

“While the impact from such an agency will not be felt immediately, it will be a welcome addition to the housing policy toolkit to aid in preventing some of the mistakes of the past.”

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ireland-housing/ireland-sets-up-land-agency-as-anger-grows-at-housing-shortage-idUKKCN1LT2GM

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13 Sep 2018

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Accountability, Affordable and Social Housing, Conflict of interest, Corruption, Developers/ Development, EDBF, Graham Brown, Lobbying, Planning System

“Home builders’ lobbyist pushed council leader to ‘sort’ and speed planning”

Is this any different to having a (Tory) COUNCILLOR in charge of planning running his own planning consultancy AND chairing an influential business forum? And if this expose came about from a Freedom of I formation request about events in Wandsworth in 2011 and 2013 …..

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9920971/If-I-cant-get-planning-nobody-will-says-Devon-councillor-and-planning-consultant.html

“A lobbyist for some of the UK’s biggest property developers used a direct communication channel to the leader of a flagship Conservative council to help push through planning applications for luxury apartment developments.

Peter Bingle used his longstanding relationship with Ravi Govindia, the leader of the London borough of Wandsworth, in attempts to circumvent council officials he believed were being obstructive to his clients, including over the size of payments due to public projects.

Bingle’s access has been revealed in a cache of emails released under the Freedom of Information Act that show him asking Govindia, a former flatmate, to smooth the passage of planning applications for hundreds of luxury homes between 2011 and 2013. Govindia responded in some cases by promising to chase officials and fix meetings.

Berkeley calls affordable housing targets ‘unviable’ as chairman earns £174m

Bingle is a former Conservative councillor at Wandsworth and was chairman of Bell Pottinger Public Affairs, once one of the country’s biggest lobbying firms. He set up Terrapin Communications, whose clients have included Ballymore and Bellway, the housebuilders, and Royal Mail when it was selling off its land for housing.

When Royal Mail complained about the junior rank of the planning officer assigned to its application and having to repeat details of its plans to officials, Bingle emailed Govindia: “This wouldn’t have happened under the old regime. Your help would be appreciated in sorting things out.”

Bingle later forwarded the Royal Mail’s plan for its presentation to the Wandsworth planning committee to Govindia asking “What’s your advice?” Govindia replied two minutes later: “Will call as soon as I finish this meeting”.

Nearly 100 London councillors have links to property industry

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing, but the correspondence provides a rare window on the methods developers use to apply pressure to politicians behind the scenes to speed up high-stakes planning decisions and to reduce infrastructure payments. An investigation last week revealed how Berkeley Homes, one of London’s largest developers of luxury homes, routinely told local authorities that their affordable housing targets were unviable.

In April, the Guardian revealed planning lobbyists regularly entertained Robert Davis, Westminster city council’s former planning committee chairman. Davis received hospitality or gifts 893 times over six years, frequently from developers and their agents, including Bingle. He has since resigned as deputy leader.

The emails relate to when Bingle was working as a lobbyist for the Royal Mail, which had submitted plans for a 1,800-home development on its site close to Battersea Power Station. In one email to Govindia he lambasted the council’s handling of a negotiation about how much his client should pay to the public purse as “chaotic and shambolic”. He told Govindia it “does nothing for Wandsworth’s reputation in the property world … Something has gone seriously wrong.”

The planning application was eventually approved. Royal Mail last year sold part of the site to US investors for £101m.

Bingle chased Govindia for updates on progress of another 252-home application at Battersea for another client, complaining about “non-committal” planning officials. He applauded the leader when a separate application for 104 private flats in Putney by Berkeley Homes was approved, signing off an email: “Many thanks for a great result.” It had no social housing.

Bingle has denied exerting any undue influence and Govindia said he made no apology for delivering more homes for Wandsworth.

Public records show Bingle has entertained at least 31 councillors in different London boroughs in recent years, taking some out for lunch or dinner more than a dozen times. When Govindia, who was among those he entertained, was awarded a CBE in 2017 Bingle said: “Never has an award for services to local government been more deserved.”

Govindia did not sit on Wandsworth’s planning committee, but Bingle repeatedly urged him to help, often simply forwarding on complaints from property developers.

In January 2012, Royal Mail was concerned about what the council wanted in terms of payments for schools and education. Bingle forwarded an email about that directly to Govindia saying “Ravi, Views?”

Govindia replied later that day: “I will chase the education chaps”.

By March, the development consultant on the scheme asked Bingle to “prod Ravi that we need to get on with this”. Bingle forwarded the email to Govinidia saying “I thought it simplest just to forward this to you”.

When Bingle sent an email asking: “Leader, Can we get a meeting with you in the diary for next week? This scheme is now stuck,” Govinida replied: “I have asked for an update from planners next week.”

Asked about the relationship Bingle said: “The fact that this information came from a freedom of information request shows that it was always available for scrutiny in the public domain. And rightly so. Having been a long-standing friend of Ravi I know it is impossible for anybody to have undue influence over him. Since his earliest days on Wandsworth as a backbench councillor he has always resolutely defended his own viewpoint even if it meant voting against the Conservative group.”

Govinidia said: “It is first and foremost the job of any council leader to press those on all sides to deliver improvements to their borough and improve the lives of their residents. To do the job effectively you need to listen to all voices and make sure that when problems or snags arise that you are on top of them and that you can secure solutions to drive forward and deliver these improvements. I make no apology whatsoever for fulfilling my role as a council leader to deliver more homes, more jobs and more opportunities for our residents.”

He said the Royal Mail development will deliver 318 new affordable homes, a higher number than the developers were originally offering.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/sep/13/home-builders-lobbyist-pushed-council-leader-to-sort-and-speed-planning