Who would like to build a house in Britain?
Addressing the non-existent democracy of the UK’s planning system.
. So Gordon Brown says he ‘will do anything’ to get the British economy back on track – well isn’t that interesting. However I bet there is one thing he won’t do, yet it is the most obvious and constructive move the government could make to address the nation’s flagging house building programme – cut through the bureaucracy and red tape which all but prevents people from building their own homes.
On this new site I will put forward ideas, and seek opinions as to why the British government thinks it’s acceptable for a ‘developer’ to be granted wholesale permission to build thousands of houses – yet individuals (and I’m going to suggest here are many tens of thousands) who would dearly love to build their own homes are poleaxed by outdated and unrealistic planning laws. But just to make one point clear, this is not a proposal for wholesale building on the ‘green belts’, but a practical proposal to engender real rural revival. Why are we browbeaten into the idea that the only way to build houses is in massive sprawls? if thousands of homes are needed in any geographic region, then disperse them – to benefit of existing communities and rural economy. No village needs hundreds of houses, but hundreds of villages could befit from a few additional homes. Oh and Gordon, if you care look at the chart below you will see why ‘developers’ can’t get us out of this awful housing mess, but people who want real homes, the nations would be self – builders can.
Over the last few years people have been lulled into believing that their houses are worth substantially more than they really are – and spent ‘equity’ that doesn’t exist in the real world. This is a substantial contribution to the failure of the whole financial system, for lenders of every persuasion, mainstream and dubious – remained convinced that even if mortgagees defaulted, the value of the property would rise relentlessly. Well it hasn’t happened, the whistle has been blown and the credit cards called in, and now we are all paying the consequences. Not to put too finer point on it – the house building sector is stuffed. Big firms can’t raise the money, so in the short to medium term where’s the next round of finance for house building going to come from? Well despite the serious downturn surprisingly enough it’s already available. Moreover if we don’t start using it now and act quickly the building industry, its workers and suppliers – will hit rock bottom with such a force that it may take a generation to recover.
Above: house-builders Taylor Wimpey shares fall from £5 to just 28p in 18 months – because we have too many houses? No, because of a fundamentally flawed financial system that has for too long traded on the false ‘equity’ of peoples homes, this simple fact is the single largest contributor to the current crisis.
Market News: 20th October – Taylor Wimpey shares now less the 11p
It’s a self evident truth that houses can’t possibly be ‘worth’ vast sums over and above what they cost to build, so allowing for developers profit margins – why are they so expensive? The answer is simple, it’s because we can’t get ‘permission’ to build them, and thus prices remain artificially high. A sensible relaxation of the planning law for self builders would introduce a whole new reality into the property market. The prospect of being able to build a new house for the cost of materials and labour, on sites which would be considerably cheaper to buy (because ‘de-regulated’ plots would be freely available – again simple supply and demand) would mean that for the first time people would be in a position to accept less for their existing houses. This is a fundamental point, for the pressures of a falling property market forces people to stay put, they are constrained by the idea that they could never afford their next home, and certainly removes the prospect of moving up the ladder, the result -stagnation, nobody moves - to the wider detriment of the economy. The benefit of allowing more self build to those trying to get a foothold on the property ladder is obvious. The move would anticipate a whole new reality in the housing market and importantly, people are not going to build where they have no roots or employment. It would also signal the end of the financial barons that have ridden on the backs of the inflated value of peoples homes for far too long, a system, if it even merits the tag, that is rapidly coming to a painful but long overdue demise.
Surely we need to keep control or rural house building would run wild ? Of course we do, firstly houses that are owned and vacated by self builders must be sold on the open market, and the new homes are built only for owner occupiers ( not ‘buy to let’ or ‘rural retreats’ for wealthy city dwellers). If the newly built property were to be sold be within a set period, then implement a substantial sliding ‘development tax’ to curb exploitation. But the bottom line is that draconian rural planning legislation is making housing unaffordable at all levels. In short fierce competition for scarce building plots, and developer led profit-making schemes have disenfranchised many people who would otherwise readily and happily contribute to the nation’s home building. It affects the well being of the rural communities when the cost a rural building site not infrequently exceeds the value of our existing houses, so only the rich can build, and so it goes on. In other words, as I outlined above, we can’t even sell and build because of the simple law of supply and demand for plots. Anyone who doubts that the planning system has forced up the cost of building, or is simply out of touch with the current price of plots may care to Google ” building plots for sale in the UK”, which will more than adequately illustrate my point (if you are of a nervous disposition be sure to set any search to ‘lower prices first’ that way you will start around the £200,000 price bracket). Now this is where the true unreality in the world of house building really kicks in.
Myself, well I’m nearing the end of my working life, but as each year passes belief in the right enshrined by the sweat of my forefathers’ brows that people who so desire should be allowed to reap the rewards of a life time of hard work, and build themselves their home in the country. And you know what? – all those fine properties, those quintessential English houses, those listed buildings so dearly loved by our native folk and visitors alike… were all built without ‘planning permission’. It’s a hugely interesting and curious concept, this idea of ‘permissions’, it presupposes that earlier generations got it entirely wrong, and that the cherished fabric of our rural settlements that evolved in the days before rural planning is flawed, when exactly the opposite is true. All the major mistakes in social engineering have not been engendered by people building their own homes, but by planners and architects who claimed to know at the time what was best for us, and still despite ample evidence to contrary insist that they know better than earlier generations. ‘Planning is a complex issue’ it’s argued, clearly beyond the comprehension of people like you and I, yes we agree it is – so lets fix it.
How will this work? Together we can work out a sensible approach, it’s largely up to you, in a true democracy the voices of self builders would far outweigh those of the ‘developer’, if you would like to be one of many people that that I’m sure are desperate for change, or live in a small community threatened with the wholesale imposition of characterless sprawling estates, then forget party politics and government ‘tinkering’ with planning rules* and add your voice to the call for real rural regeneration led by a major revision of the planning system.
* A few weeks back it was announced in a ‘typical tinkering policy’ that we can add up to 4m to the back of existing properties… or ‘build outhouses in our gardens’, well Gordon that’s not what we want… the materials are languishing in the merchants yards, we have the skill - and we would have the sites if we removed the artificial restrictions, we do not need government finance, just let us build our own homes.
News
Estate agents in trouble, he ultimate paradox nobody wants to move or get on the property ladder?
News
Here is the news on current housebuilding situation in the USA ( where planning is far less of a problem than in the UK ). In the US activity is now at a 17 year low, we can be sure that our own industry is sure to follow in the coming months: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7676275.stm
. …………………….also: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7675279.stm
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A while back I contacted a few of the major building supply companies, I unfortunately made the mistake of including a phone call to the ‘Buildbase‘ HQ in Oxford hoping to solicit some local support ‘no we don’t have an email address’ -passed over to someone who might had heard of email – ‘maybe we can get someone to look at the website’. Well I honestly don’t care whether you choose to or not lady, it’s your jobs that are on the line not mine, an apathy typically symptomatic of the tragic state of Britain right now?
News
The number of new homes being built in England looks set to fall to an 88-year low.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090310/tuk-number-of-new-homes-in-england-set-t-45dbed5.html
