Investment
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
Access to a mortgage still regarded as a major barrier for new UK home owners
Just 12% of UK adults believe access to mortgages has improved in the past five years, but not enough, despite recent moves to open up the mortgage market, new research has found. This is a substantial drop from 29% recorded in similar research commissioned by Precise Mortgages last year. Despite this negative sentiment, the report witnessed improvement in some of the wider issues facing home owners. Over the last year UK renters, in general, see saving for a deposit, finding an affordable property and getting a mortgage approved less of a barrier to owning their own home than in 2014. However, some 49% of UK adults believe that mortgage rates only favour those with large deposits and 36% feel that mortgages are too difficult to obtain for first time buyers. But 76% of renters aged between 18 and 24 regard saving enough for a deposit as a barrier to owning their own home, and 67% say finding an affordable property is a barrier. With the average cost of a property now upward of £200,000and house price inflation set to hit 6% this year, affordability is likely to remain a challenge for first time buyers, the research suggests. Despite an uphill battle some 41% of those renting aged 18 to 24 still hope to own their own home in the next five years. However, amongst the older demographic the situation differs, with only 14% of renters aged 45 to 54 planning to own a property in the next five years, with the majority at 67% having no aspirations to be a home owner. ‘Prospective home buyers are feeling more positive about their ability to save and find an affordable property, but with consumer sentiment towards mortgage accessibility falling in the last year, the industry has a vital job to do in reassuring prospective home owners,’ said Alan Cleary, managing director of Precise Mortgages. ‘The mortgage industry should serve prospective homebuyers, and we must dispel the belief that lenders continue to favour large deposits and are unforgiving of those with blemishes on their credit record,’ he explained. ‘There are specialist lenders in the market ideally placed to help navigate the obstacles potential home buyers face, but there is still more to be done across the wider industry. Ensuring that all viable home owners have access to mortgage products should be the aim of the industry as a whole,’ he added. Continue reading
London Mayor secures planning change for the city
The Mayor of London has welcomed the UK Government's decision to reconsider planning proposals that would have potentially seen valuable office space in the city turned into homes. Boris Johnson has been actively lobbying the Government to amend proposals that he believes would have put the capital's key business districts at risk by allowing office space to be converted into homes without developers applying for planning permission for the change of use. Now the Minister for Housing and Planning, Brandon Lewis, has announced that he will amend the original proposals to ensure London is able to maintain a stock of quality office space in existing key areas, and allow the city to continue to attract jobs and growth. Last year the Mayor successfully negotiated for defined areas of central London to be exempt from a Government policy that allowed office space to be converted into homes without developers applying for change of use planning permission. These areas covered the Central Activities Zone which incorporates the City of London, the South Bank, parts of Kensington and Chelsea, the West End, the commercial area north of the Isle of Dogs and London's Enterprise Zones in the Royal Docks, plus the part of the City Fringe in east London which makes up the emerging Tech City opportunity area. However new proposals announced by the Government would have removed these exemptions which Johnson believes potentially threatened London's internationally important business locations. Lewis said that the Government will allow local authorities to bring forward special planning regulations known as Article 4 directions if they wish to continue determining planning applications for the change of use. This will ensure that London's commercial heartlands will be protected from planning changes. ‘I am delighted that Government has put policies in place that will lead to the protection of our thriving business districts. Removing the planning exemption in those areas would have put the future economic growth of this city at risk, but by agreeing to amend their proposals the Government are ensuring we will be able to maintain the full stock of quality office space required for our city to continue to prosper,’ said Johnson. The Mayor is firmly on track to deliver 100,000 affordable homes over his two terms, with more than 94,000 already built. In the last year there were almost 18,000 affordable completions, the most in any year in London since 1991 and the equivalent of a new affordable home built every 30 minutes. Since the Mayor took on 670 hectares of public land in 2012 some 99% has been released for development, in line with the Mayor's 100% target by the end of his term in 2016. Land already released by the Mayor includes east London's Royal Docks, the Beam Park site in Rainham, and the former Cane Hill hospital site in Croydon. The current exemptions will remain in place until May 2019, providing time for these local authorities to make an Article 4 application to remove the rights… Continue reading
