ROOF Blog

A Communities and Local Government select committee has reported that if the government is to meet its house building targets it must bring in new measures to support the mortgage market. The committee warned that the Treasury’s asset-backed guarantee scheme was not enough to kick start the housing market, and was ‘doomed to fail’. It also criticised the government for focusing on owner occupiers at the expense of the private and social rented sector.

The prime minister has written to housing professionals to reiterate his commitment to housing as one of his top priorities. He said that it was the right time to commit an additional £1.5 billion to build an extra 20,000 affordable new homes in the next two years, and by making ‘tough decisions’ such as reallocating departmental budgets we can ‘meet our obligations to a fairer, stronger and more prosperous society’.

However, the government has confirmed it has dropped its affordable house building target from 70,000 to 55,000 a year in the next two years, despite the additional funding, as it is now paying ‘more of the cost per house’ due to the huge reduction in section 106 agreements and other forms of private investment. The government expects to complete 55,500 affordable homes this year and 56,450 in 2010/11, but only 13,500 a year will be for social rent rather than the 45,000 out of 70,000 homes originally planned. Communities and Local Government refused to provide a regional breakdown of the reduced targets.

The number of council and housing association homes for rent is at its lowest in 50 years, a Shelter Scotland report has found. Building pressure warns of a ‘growing chasm between the number of homes needed and the number available’. It estimated there were 142,000 households on the waiting list for council homes, and said the right-to-buy scheme was partly to blame for the shortage as more than 135,000 homes had been sold under the scheme in the previous decade.

According to the latest National Housing Planning and Advice Unit’s survey on housing, attitudes to new housing developments need to change ‘as a matter of urgency’. More than half of current homeowners (51 per cent) would object to new housing being built in their area, despite continuing home affordability issues where as many as 90 per cent of young people cannot afford an average first-time buyer’s house. By comparison less than a third of non-homeowners (31 per cent) would object. Despite the average house price fall of 22 per cent, almost nine out of ten young people cannot afford to buy an averagely priced first-time home.

House builders are drip feeding homes on to the market so they don’t flood the market and cause further price falls industry experts warned yesterday. The practice is ‘widespread’ among large scale builders such as Barratt, and they blamed a lack of competition between developers of large sites for the problem, as greater competition would bring more houses to the market.

For the first time in nearly 20 years English local councils are to begin constructing homes, following last week’s announcement by John Healey allowing town halls to retain rent from council housing and receipts from the right-to-buy scheme. Analysts predict that nearly 140,000 homes will be built in the next decade, as local authorities start applying for £350 million in direct funding made available from the government. Birmingham is planning to build 500 council houses a year within three years to become the biggest council house builder in England.

The Homes and Communities Agency says it is ready to begin delivering the significantly enlarged programme of public house building when it takes responsibility of the additional £1.5 billion promised on Monday by Gordon Brown. The HCA will allocate the funds through its National Affordable Housing Programme, and via the existing bidding process which it says will kickstart stalled schemes and help local authorities directly.

The number of homes completed in Scotland has fallen 23 per cent in the final quarter of last year and 13 per cent for the whole of 2008. The number of new homes started in the fourth quarter of the year was 48 per cent down on the same quarter in 2007 and overall down 19 per cent from 2007 to 2008. However, there was a big increase in the number of houses for rent or low cost home ownership, with 29 per cent more homes built than in 2007, and the highest level in eight years.

The planning system must not become a ‘tool for promoting economic development’, the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) said, setting out its vision for the future of the English countryside. The CPRE describes the countryside it wants to see by 2026, its centenary year, as where urban regeneration contributes to green space, affordable housing, vibrant neighbourhoods and people-friendly transport. It expects more than two million ‘high quality homes’ will have been built and energy efficient buildings and low carbon communities would be commonplace. It also wants more planning decisions to be taken locally.