ROOF Blog

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 National Housing Federation says banks are turning away £1 billion of business because of prejudice against low cost housing. The banks are refusing to lend to people on modest incomes – first-time buyers and key workers – because they mistakenly view the shared ownership deals as unsound. The NHF estimates that the banks lack of interest in 2008/09 resulted in 9,000 low cost homes remaining unsold, and has called for the state owned banks to make lending on shared ownership schemes a priority.

The Tenant Services Authority (TSA) said that housing associations have made a promising start clearing the backlog of unsold low cost homes. During the past quarter (January - March 2009) the number of unsold properties fell 16 per cent, and the number of homes unsold for more than six months dropped 19 per cent. TSA chief executive Peter Marsh said that housing associations had sold more homes than they converted to rented social housing in the last quarter, indicating that associations were adapting to the changing market.

However, Westminster CC has revealed plans to embark on the biggest council house building programme for a generation in May. During the next four years the council will build almost 500 homes on brownfield and under-used sites on existing estates to help ease overcrowding and homelessness. The scheme will include 104 shared ownership homes and 70 one-bedroom starter homes at a discounted rate. Most of the houses will be set aside for social rent and low cost home ownership, while more than half will have at least three bedrooms. Latest figures show that Westminster has around 1,200 families in overcrowding and 2,500 in temporary accommodation.

The Homes and Communities Agency is in talks with groups such as Legal & General about the way for institutional investors to build social housing. Gordon Brown is keen to find ways to increase the amount of housing, and a new public-private fund with the HCA putting equity into schemes and offering rental guarantees for the first two years of ownership is expected to be announced around the budget on 22 April.

The HCA delivered about 50,000 affordable homes in England and increased rental and low cost home ownership in the past financial year. Its latest accounts show it invested £3.9 billion on housing and regeneration.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders has today called on the government to introduce three simple measures in the Budget to kick start the housing market. CML wants low-cost home ownership schemes to be extended and simplified; stamp duty to be reformed; and the introduction of greater support for homeowners who get into difficulty. It said that it was focusing on a narrow range of measures aimed at encouraging housing market activity and limit repossessions.

The new HomeBuy Direct scheme – allowing buyers earning less than £60,000 to take out a mortgage for 70 per cent of the cost of a property and an interest-free loan for the remaining 30 per cent – has been so successful that developers say they are in danger of running out of stock by summer. Housing minister Margaret Beckett said that demand had been three times the amount the government had expected, particularly in London. The government originally said the scheme would help 18,000 first-time buyers, but Barratt, one of the developers involved, said that 20,000 potential buyers had registered interest with them.

The government is focusing on the countryside with housing, broadband and business support programmes, including the building of 10,3000 low-cost houses by 2011. The support will be funded by £3.9 billion, more than double the budget pf the past six years.

The National Housing Federation has told ministers that Northern Rock should be instructed to make mortgages available through low-cost home ownership schemes now that it has been nationalised. It argues that the bank should be made to take on a social purpose and help those who can afford a home but who cannot get a mortgage.

Bovis Homes has been forced to sell hundreds of unwanted homes to the government, through the government’s National Clearing House, in a deal worth £18 million. The clearing house scheme enables house builders to sell unsold stock to housing associations either for rent or low-cost home ownership.