| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? 14:50 - May 17 with 9475 views | GavTWTD |
I feel that we're not looking at the housing crisis in the right way. Nimbyism is preventing housebuilding to the scale we need, so why don't we build a few large villages per rural county? I've not done the maths on this. It's just an idea, but get a (good) town planner in and develop some lower value farmland.
Get the town planner to insist on some architectural standards across the village, including green and insulation and styles, social housing etc. Get high speed broadband into every house. Stick a wind turbine up for local use, a pub/shop or more facilities, and inject money into local schools and health services. Create green spaces in the village, some stone bridges or whatever and don't make a concrete jungle, but something designed holistically from the ground up.
I don't know about land values, but perhaps the farmland could be bought reasonably cheaply, given that it only has one use currently. Then the land could be sold to developers at a commercial rates to fund local infrastructure improvements or social housing. Provision could be given to local farmers to sell land at a later date at commercial rates that skirt the village.
Anyway, this isn't in my manifesto, just something for discussion at the next conference. |  |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:00 - May 17 with 3596 views | soupytwist |
What you have overlooked in your suggestion is how the executives of the large housing development companies will still be able to 'earn' their huge bonuses. |  | | |
| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:00 - May 17 with 3591 views | J2BLUE |
A shortage of housing means more people need to rent at extortionate rates and the value of the properties continue to go up. Can't see the Tories investing to take away the benefit from their mates to give to the plebs. Far too radical for Starmer as well.
If I won Euromillions I would buy a piece of land and have hundreds of tiny homes on there to rent out cheaply. I think our whole idea of housing needs to change. There are some cool tiny home communities and container 'apartment' blocks. Not a long term solution but could become a new step in the ladder for people just starting to save and maybe even a final step to unlock the value of homes as a pension for people. |  |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:04 - May 17 with 3577 views | GavTWTD |
| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:00 - May 17 by soupytwist |
What you have overlooked in your suggestion is how the executives of the large housing development companies will still be able to 'earn' their huge bonuses. |
Well, it creates large amounts of building land that wasn't available before. | |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:10 - May 17 with 3560 views | SaleAway |
| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:04 - May 17 by GavTWTD |
Well, it creates large amounts of building land that wasn't available before. |
there's not currently a shortage of building land... there's a shortage of developers willing to develop it... because obviously, if you dump a glut of housing on the market, then your prices fall...
https://www.local.gov.uk/about/news/over-1-million-homes-planning-permission-wai |  |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:12 - May 17 with 3549 views | SaleAway |
What we need, of course is a sustained period of social house building.... and a fixed rule that if a council sells a house to a tenant, they have to build at least one more to replace it. | |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:16 - May 17 with 3539 views | GavTWTD |
Well then they need to change the planning rules. Shorten the expiry date. I don't know what can be done, but if that's the problem, sort it!
"To help councils get developers building more quickly, the Queen’s Speech should bring forward legislation that enables councils to charge developers full council tax for every unbuilt development from the point the original planning permission expires. " - sounds like a good idea
As does "It should also make it easier for councils to use compulsory purchase powers to acquire stalled housing sites or sites where developers do not build out to timescales contractually agreed with a local planning authority. "
However this was dated two years ago. Has it had any effect? | |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:22 - May 17 with 3497 views | TalkingBlues |
No reason why it can't be done, look at all the Garden Cities that were built after the War. Developers are the problem, they hold everybody to ransom, IMO the Government should launch its own property development business and develop land it owns itself, imagine how much more affordable the places would be with nobody looking to turn a huge profit on the build and they wouldn't have to put up with the sh1te from private developers. |  |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:23 - May 17 with 3500 views | SaleAway |
| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:16 - May 17 by GavTWTD |
Well then they need to change the planning rules. Shorten the expiry date. I don't know what can be done, but if that's the problem, sort it!
"To help councils get developers building more quickly, the Queen’s Speech should bring forward legislation that enables councils to charge developers full council tax for every unbuilt development from the point the original planning permission expires. " - sounds like a good idea
As does "It should also make it easier for councils to use compulsory purchase powers to acquire stalled housing sites or sites where developers do not build out to timescales contractually agreed with a local planning authority. "
However this was dated two years ago. Has it had any effect? |
legislating to try and force the private sector to do stuff that is for the good of the community, rather than for shareholders is usually massively self defeating. ( see water companies and sewage etc etc....)
As previously mentioned, a huge amount of UK wealth is tied to house and land values. most of this relies on maintaining a housing deficit. As you've mentioned, its technically not difficult to sort.... either by using compulsory purchase powers, or incentives, or just create a state house builder that can access cheap government credit. If professional landlords can make a killing on rental property, surely a state owned housing provider should be able to do something similar, investing its own profits back into more housing....
But you need the political will to do it.... | |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:29 - May 17 with 3454 views | chicoazul |
The whole concept that there is a shortage of housing is deranged. Loads and loads of houses have one or more empty bedrooms. What needs to happen is, the correct incentives for people to leave houses that are far too big for them. Otherwise what’s the alternative? Build ever more and more houses?
Edit; https://www.bigissue.com/news/housing/how-many-empty-homes-are-there-in-the-uk/ [Post edited 17 May 2023 15:34]
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:32 - May 17 with 3434 views | TalkingBlues |
| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:29 - May 17 by chicoazul |
The whole concept that there is a shortage of housing is deranged. Loads and loads of houses have one or more empty bedrooms. What needs to happen is, the correct incentives for people to leave houses that are far too big for them. Otherwise what’s the alternative? Build ever more and more houses?
Edit; https://www.bigissue.com/news/housing/how-many-empty-homes-are-there-in-the-uk/ [Post edited 17 May 2023 15:34]
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Depends on what market you are talking about, there is a massive shortfall of housing in the social sector and the "incentive" to move was provided in the form of the wonderfully popular "bedroom tax". | |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:33 - May 17 with 3425 views | chicoazul |
| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:32 - May 17 by TalkingBlues |
Depends on what market you are talking about, there is a massive shortfall of housing in the social sector and the "incentive" to move was provided in the form of the wonderfully popular "bedroom tax". |
That’s because it was a tax not an incentive perhaps? | |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:37 - May 17 with 3409 views | giant_stow |
| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:00 - May 17 by soupytwist |
What you have overlooked in your suggestion is how the executives of the large housing development companies will still be able to 'earn' their huge bonuses. |
I fhere's one industry/sector that needs nationalising over all others, I'd say its the corporate housebuilders. |  |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:38 - May 17 with 3403 views | GavTWTD |
| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:29 - May 17 by chicoazul |
The whole concept that there is a shortage of housing is deranged. Loads and loads of houses have one or more empty bedrooms. What needs to happen is, the correct incentives for people to leave houses that are far too big for them. Otherwise what’s the alternative? Build ever more and more houses?
Edit; https://www.bigissue.com/news/housing/how-many-empty-homes-are-there-in-the-uk/ [Post edited 17 May 2023 15:34]
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The UK population grows by about 230k every year. Getting people to downsize isn't really going to work because people need space and are working from home a lot. I would imagine there is a desperate need for 1 and 2 bedroom houses so downsizing makes that worse.
Yes, making use of empty houses should be a priority. | |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:39 - May 17 with 3392 views | TalkingBlues |
| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:33 - May 17 by chicoazul |
That’s because it was a tax not an incentive perhaps? |
Wonderful idea, but the reality is that people just won't move out of a bigger house without HUGE incentive, which would be unaffordable, hence the alternative, taxing them out, not saying I agree, but people are predictably selfish. | |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:42 - May 17 with 3378 views | catch74 |
It’s interesting around here (Surrey/Hants border). I’ve just driven through Bordon, they’ve built/ building 5000 new houses on old army land. They’ve built a new school, centrally there’s the shed - using local business that use local suppliers (mainly eateries.) Bordon was somewhere to avoid but having just driven through it the new housing looks fine, there’s a focus on keeping greenery and trees with investment in local green areas (Hogmoor enclosure.) There was even talk of adding a train station there - shame they haven’t, it’d maybe be an hour from Waterloo.
Aldershot having similar too.
Farnham they’re wrecking by focusing on how many 4 story houses they can cram into the new development, it’s a lovely market town that used to have a focus on independent shops. |  |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:43 - May 17 with 3368 views | chicoazul |
| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:38 - May 17 by GavTWTD |
The UK population grows by about 230k every year. Getting people to downsize isn't really going to work because people need space and are working from home a lot. I would imagine there is a desperate need for 1 and 2 bedroom houses so downsizing makes that worse.
Yes, making use of empty houses should be a priority. |
But people don’t *need* space. They *want* space and fine, me too. But they don’t need it. And many of the people who do have it need it even less than others.
Building houses carries an enormous carbon cost too. | |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:45 - May 17 with 3360 views | chicoazul |
| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:39 - May 17 by TalkingBlues |
Wonderful idea, but the reality is that people just won't move out of a bigger house without HUGE incentive, which would be unaffordable, hence the alternative, taxing them out, not saying I agree, but people are predictably selfish. |
Hence “the correct incentives”. | |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:47 - May 17 with 3346 views | TalkingBlues |
| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:45 - May 17 by chicoazul |
Hence “the correct incentives”. |
Tell me then, what are the "correct incentives"? | |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:51 - May 17 with 3327 views | DanTheMan |
| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:29 - May 17 by chicoazul |
The whole concept that there is a shortage of housing is deranged. Loads and loads of houses have one or more empty bedrooms. What needs to happen is, the correct incentives for people to leave houses that are far too big for them. Otherwise what’s the alternative? Build ever more and more houses?
Edit; https://www.bigissue.com/news/housing/how-many-empty-homes-are-there-in-the-uk/ [Post edited 17 May 2023 15:34]
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We do have a lack of houses, however, I do think you're right in that the estates we tend to build here offer nothing in the way of medium or high density housing. |  |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:54 - May 17 with 3308 views | giant_stow |
| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:47 - May 17 by TalkingBlues |
Tell me then, what are the "correct incentives"? |
Is Chico chatting about a wealth tax maybe? Not to out words in his mouth... | |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:57 - May 17 with 3282 views | TalkingBlues |
| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:54 - May 17 by giant_stow |
Is Chico chatting about a wealth tax maybe? Not to out words in his mouth... |
No, he specifically doesn’t want a tax on people, but rather the “correct incentives” to encourage people to move, I am waiting for his response in that regard. | |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:59 - May 17 with 3256 views | GavTWTD |
| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:54 - May 17 by giant_stow |
Is Chico chatting about a wealth tax maybe? Not to out words in his mouth... |
No, he wants me to work from my bedroom rather than my office. | |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 16:03 - May 17 with 3245 views | J2BLUE |
| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:45 - May 17 by chicoazul |
Hence “the correct incentives”. |
Go on then...what would they be? | |
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 16:24 - May 17 with 3172 views | HARRY10 |
We are in the US civil war territory here.
Parasitical landlords hold millions in economic captivity while enjoying unfeasibly large payments from (or subsidised by) us via housing benefit.
Are we to expect that while these scroungers are in charge any change is likely - a disgusting example of so much that is wrong with housing, and the wider society, in the UK.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/may/17/tory-peers-family-used-no-fault-ev
"The family of a billionaire Tory landlord used a no-fault eviction to throw out a tenant after he refused a £1,680 annual rent increase having reported mould, damp and cold......and sits on the government benches in the House of Lords, which will scrutinise the renters reform bill announced this week" [Post edited 17 May 2023 16:44]
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| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 16:25 - May 17 with 3175 views | BlueBoots |
| The housing crisis - build new villages or small towns? on 15:38 - May 17 by GavTWTD |
The UK population grows by about 230k every year. Getting people to downsize isn't really going to work because people need space and are working from home a lot. I would imagine there is a desperate need for 1 and 2 bedroom houses so downsizing makes that worse.
Yes, making use of empty houses should be a priority. |
"Yes, making use of empty houses should be a priority."
Not living in Suffolk, I don't really have a feel for the current housing market in the area.
Living in London, I can say that the empty houses issue here is a real problem; lots of properties bought as investments (or by people with second homes out of London who are choosing to live in those instead) sitting empty - there is talk of bringing in a "use it or lose it" policy, but doubt that will ever get pushed through.
Plenty of potential to not even have to build new housing on new land, but develop brownfield sites or repurpose office / commercial property that has become less desirable since the increase in working from home, but, as someone else mentioned, (even though it's necessary), any large increase in housing availability risks impacting a housing market which is already a bit wobbly due to the rise in interest rates. |  |
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