Tag Archives: london
Experts urge UK govt not to sacrifice quality for quantity in house building crusade
The UK’s oldest housing and planning charity has expressed its concern about the implications of the Government's announcement of further significant deregulation to planning. According to the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) the recent announcement from Prime Minister David Cameron that he wants to build a million new homes by 2020, many of them affordable and aimed at first time buyers, quality could be sacrificed for quantity. It will means the introduction of US style zonal planning for brownfield sites, and the removal of a range of controls that are vital to ensure that high quality homes are built, it says while fully supporting the initiative. The TCPA is concerned that local communities will have no control over the quality of many of the homes built in their areas and says that by allowing large numbers of new homes to be created without going through the usual planning processes, there is a clear risk that we will build poor quality developments which increase the pressure on community facilities such as roads, schools and doctors' surgeries. It also criticises the plant to make permanent the temporary changes to permitted development rules so that offices can be converted into homes without the need for planning permission. It says this risks creating poor quality housing with no space for children to play, no car parkin; and no consideration of the need for more local school places, GP surgeries and other community facilities and infrastructure. Granting outline planning permission for any housing built on brownfield land, in effect, represents the introduction of zonal planning, it says, a system that can work well if properly implemented with detailed procedures to ensure quality but represents a major change to English planning that the Government is introducing with no consultation, and no safeguards to safeguard quality. ‘The decision to extend permitted development from office to residential seriously undermines the ability to create decent homes in vibrant communities. The Government says it is committed to localism and that it wants planning to give power to local communities. However, the announcements mean that local communities will have even less say over how their neighbourhoods are developed,’ said Kate Henderson, TCPA chief executive. According to Hugh Ellis, head of policy at the TCPA, it is a major deregulation of local planning and the loss of community control over large parts of the urban environment.’ It is worrying that this has come at a time when we know we need smart green cities that can deal with climate change and provide healthy environments for ordinary people. These announcements are a missed opportunity to ensure we create high quality, successful and climate resilient places,’ he added. The TCPA is currently undertaking a major new project, Planning4People, which pushes for strong and democratic planning system which puts the needs of ordinary people at the heart of planning. ‘As we strive to address the housing crisis and build the homes that the nation… Continue reading
Data shows foreign buyers are back in the Spanish property market
The number of international buyers back in the Spanish property market is rising with British people now representing almost 20% of foreign sales, new data shows. In absolute terms, the number of purchases by foreigners is increasing to over 42,000 in a year with close to 11,000 transactions quarterly, and over 42,000 in a year. According to figures from the Ministry of Public Works sales to foreign residents in Spain increased year on year in the latest quarter by 17.2%, the 16th quarter on a row of growth to this sector of buyers. The nationality with the greatest volume of home purchases is the British, amounting to 19.8%, and it is suggested that this is due to the UK’s economic recovery and currency rates which give buyers more euros to the pound. French buyers accounted for 8.1% of sales to foreigners, Germans 7.6%, Belgians 6.4%, the Swedish some 5.5% and Italians 5.3%. But sales to Russian buyers have dropped from 9% during 2012 and 2013 to less than 4% currently, and this is likely due to the fall of the rouble and the price of oil. Asian buyers still only account for a small percentage of sales. Quarter on quarter sales to foreign non-residents reached 17,307 while sales to foreigners who are not residents increased by 5% to 1,244 transactions. A rise in foreign demand has also been recorded by the Association of Registrars whose latest data suggests that while there was a slight decline in the first quarter of the year, in the second quarter sales reached 12.8% of the total home transactions. In the first half of the year, foreign home buyers accounted for between a third and a quarter of all the home purchases in some regions. For example, in the Balearic Islands, some 33.5% of all the home purchases in the second quarter were made by international buyers, while in the Canary Islands they accounted for 27.5%, and in Valencia some 25.7% of all transactions. The regions of Murcia, Andalucía and Catalonia recorded percentages of home purchases by international buyers of between 12% and 15%, while in Madrid they accounted for only 4.7% of sales. The data also shows that in Aragón foreigners bought 4.5% of homes, in La Rioja it was 2.8%, in Navarra 2.3%, in Asturias and Cantabria 1.9%, in Castilla-La Mancha 1.8%, in the Basque Country 1.7%, in Castilla y León 1.1%, in Galicia 0.6% and in Extremadura just 0.4%. Meanwhile, the latest house price data suggest the housing market in stable with average national prices down by just 0.8% in the 12 months to the end of September, according to data from appraisal company Tinsa. A second set of figures from Idealista suggests year on year property prices fell 1.6% to a national average of €1,574 per square meter. According to Mark Stucklin of Spanish Property Insight, these latest figures back an overall trend of stabilisation in the country’s real estate market. But he is sceptical about official figures from… Continue reading
Skills crisis threatens ambitious UK home building programme
A growing skills crisis in the UK building industry threatens the Prime Minister’s ambition to increase home ownership and will undermine wider economic growth, it is claimed. The Prime Minister stated last week that he wants his legacy to be defined by increasing home ownership, but this won’t be possible without an ample supply of skilled construction workers, according to the Federation of Master Builders (FMB). The organisation’s latest survey covering the third quarter of 2015 suggests that a skills time bomb is in danger of exploding with 60% of small construction firms struggling to hire bricklayers, up from 49%three months ago. The research also shows that 54% of firms are struggling to hire carpenters and joiners, up from 47% in the previous quarter. ‘If the skilled labour isn’t available, the Government’s ambitions for home ownership won’t be realised,’ said Brian Berry, FMB chief executive. ‘It’s not just house building and home ownership that are being hampered by the skills shortage. The future economic growth of our country relies on major infrastructure projects, such as HS2 and Hinkley Point, being built,’ Berry pointed out. ‘We urgently need to boost our workforce by convincing people, in their thousands, to return to our industry or join us for the first time. Key to this is the need to address the severe shortfall in apprenticeships,’ he explained. Continue reading
