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Lack of resources in councils holding up major planning applications
Major new planning applications in English cities are taking well over six months to determine due to a lack of resources, new research suggests. Both developers and local authorities have identified a lack of resource within planning departments as a key barrier to development. The majority of developers believe higher planning fees might be part of a potential solution, helping local authorities shorten waiting times and improve performance. The average submission to determination time for a major planning application is 32 weeks across London, Greater Manchester and Bristol and the surrounding area, over double the government target of 13 weeks. In addition to this, and despite a worsening housing crisis, the overall volume of major applications determined in London fell by 26%, according to the fourth Annual Planning Survey from the British Property Federation and GL Hearn, part of Capita plc. Both public and private sector respondents to the survey expressed concern with the lack of resources available to local planning authorities. Some 55% of local authorities say under resourcing is a significant challenge and 50% believe the planning system is not operating as well as it was in 2010. Also a significant 75% of applicants are dissatisfied with the length of time a planning application takes, up from 71% last year. The survey found that 65% of applicants would be happy to pay more if it would shorten determination times. The details of the research shows that in London, the average submission to determination time is 34 weeks, some six weeks longer than last year’s study but a modest improvement from 2011/2012 when it stood at 37 weeks. The average submission to determination time is 27 weeks in both Greater Manchester, Bristol and the surrounding area. The volume of major planning applications determined has fallen by 26% in London, increased by 19% in Manchester, and stayed the same in Bristol and the surrounding area. In line with diminishing land opportunities in the capital, densification is a more prevalent priority for applicants in London at 47% compared to applicants in the North West at 14%. ‘In order to get Britain building again, we need to get Britain planning. Development activity is critical for our economy, not least in order to tackle the urgent housing crisis. This year’s Annual Planning Survey shows that the planning system needs investment and that requires action across the board,’ said Shaun Andrews, GL Hearn’s head of investor and developer planning. ‘We need to ensure that planning authorities have the right people with the right skills and powers in place to drive forward a growth agenda and that the system is able to release the right resources when it’s needed. For their part, developers need to speak with a single voice and make it clear what levels of service they need and how much they are prepared to pay for it,’ he pointed out. ‘There is… Continue reading
Rents in England and Wales reach new record level
Rents across England and Wales reached the highest level on record between August and September in a trend increasingly divergent from the wider rate of consumer price inflation, new data shows. Average rents now stand at a new record of £816 per month, after rising by 1.6% month on month and 6.3% year on year, according to the latest buy to let index from Your Move and Reeds Rains. Trends in the private rented sector are increasingly divergent from the official measure of wider inflation. According to the Office for National Statistics consumer prices are by contrast now 0.1% lower than in September 2014. On a cumulative basis the difference with inflation is starker, the index report shows. Rents are now 24.4% higher than in January 2010, while the index of CPI inflation is just 14.1% higher over the same period. This means rents have risen by 10.3% in real terms since the start of the decade. ‘Rents are rising strongly in real terms due to the recent acceleration in wages, and the much deeper and longer term shortage of available properties across the UK of all tenures,’ said Adrian Gill, director of estate agents Reeds Rains and Your Move. ‘Meanwhile, as the price of everyday essentials plateaus and even falls, rents are no longer following the same broad trends. The cost of a place to live has now uncoupled from the cost of living. As long as this supply and demand imbalance keeps up, it is hard to see any reversal in the speed of rent rises,’ he explained. ‘In many ways housing is more essential than other expenses, so this also raises important questions about the nature of inflation. In this case, reform of the UK housing market and planning system is the only serious way to maintain steadier rental inflation,’ he added. The data also shows that five out of 10 regions of England and Wales have also seen individual rent records in September. Rents in London are rising most rapidly, up 11.6% on an annual basis to a new record of £1,301 per month. The annual change in London has also overtaken the East of England, where rents are now rising marginally more slowly, yet are still up 8.8% over the last 12 months. Record rents in the East Midlands are now 6.7% higher than a year ago, at £603 per month, while the West Midlands has seen its own record of £592 per month, or 5.2% higher than in September 2014. Meanwhile, South Western rents have risen at a comparable annual rate of 5.5% to stand at a fresh local record of £691 per month. The final region to see a local record, rents in the South East now average £831 per month, but have risen more slowly, by 3.6% since September 2014. ‘We are in the middle of… Continue reading
Steady price growth forecast for London’s prime property market
Homes in London’s prime property market are set for steady price growth in the mid term as the market adjusts to new constraints such as tax and inflation, new research shows. Stamp duty reform at the end of last year, very low inflation and the mortgage market review which came into being in 2014 will continue to moderate London’s prime housing markets over the short term, according to the latest five year forecast from real estate advisor Savills. But the fundamentals of wealth generation and demand point to a steady medium term price growth and the key trend will be different patterns of growth across the different tiers of the prime London market. The prime market covers a broad swathe stretching from Ealing in the west to Canary Wharf in the east and from Highgate in the north to Wimbledon in the south, dictated as much by price band as by location. As such, the higher value markets of prime central London, where the average house price in the Savills index is around £5 million, are expected to remain flat next year, but record five year growth of 21.5% given the medium term forecasts for international and domestic economic growth and wealth generation. Prime central London values are currently showing annual price falls of 4.6% but are expected to have largely absorbed the impact of higher stamp duty charges by the end of 2015, to close 2015 some 2% down year on year. Other prime London markets are less impacted by higher stamp duty charges and are expected to see moderate price growth through next year, rising 2%, the report says. However, tighter lending criteria will continue to be a constraining factor for these more domestic markets, capping five year growth at lower 18.2%. ‘The stamp duty reform of December 2014 was a defining moment for the top end of the prime London market, particularly as it was looking fairly fully priced having grown significantly to outperform the rest of the market over a 10 year period,’ said Lucian Cook, Savills head of residential research. ‘It is fair to say that last year’s Autumn Statement took the market by surprise and has essentially prevented any bounce back in values post-election, leaving little scope for significant value uplift next year, particularly in a low inflation environment,’ he explained. ‘As such, we have pushed out our five year forecast by a year to 18 months, building in a period of little or no growth as the market continues to adjust to a new fiscal and regulatory environment,’ he pointed out. ‘Thereafter, we expect the depth of the market and the maturity of London as a global city, coupled with job creation and economic growth forecasts to return to long term trend rates of real price growth, particularly, but by no means exclusively, in core prime central London… Continue reading
