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Tackling the UK’s housing crisis

Friday, April 27, 2018

The UK’s shortage of new homes remains critical; a shortfall caused over decades by increased demand, limited building land, planning hurdles and limited investment in construction. In 2015 the government’s stated aim was to add one million new homes by 2020 (or 200,000 additional homes per year) including conversion of buildings such as offices, churches and farm buildings.

In the 2016/17 financial year, 217,350 new homes were completed, the first time the threshold had been met since the financial crisis. However, in 2016 The House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs recommended a target of 300,000 new homes annually “for the foreseeable future” to beat the housing shortage. Predictably, the shortage is most acute in London and the South East, with the added problem of affordability. So what is being done to tackle the crisis?

The 2015 Government's Housing White Paper, “Fixing our broken housing market” published in February 2017 set out “a comprehensive package of reform to increase housing supply and halt the decline in housing affordability.” It identified the need for suitable land for development to be brought forward quickly at a reasonable price, for local authority planning departments to be properly resourced and to tackle the slow, costly and complex planning system. Many agree on the need to incentivise authorities to approve development, and for developers to build without delay once permission is granted.

In the Autumn Budget 2017, Chancellor Philip Hammond announced a 5 year £44 billion investment programme with a target of building 300,000 homes per year by the mid-2020s. The Chancellor’s recent Spring Statement reported progress on these plans, confirming for example that London would receive £1.67 billion to build 27,000 more affordable homes by 2021/22. The Housing Growth Partnership, which provides support to smaller housebuilders, is also being doubled to £220 million. In terms of affordability, stamp duty for first-time buyers of homes under £300,000 was abolished at 2017’s Autumn Budget, with an estimated 60,000 first-time buyers having benefitted to date. The government’s £10 billion expansion of the ‘Help-to-Buy’ scheme is also designed to assist those looking to get onto the property ladder.

The Private Rented Sector (PRS) currently houses over 20% of UK households so it was appropriate for the government to meet with representatives from The National Landlords’ Association (NLA), The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA Propertymark), The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), The National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) and The Residential Landlords Association (RLA) recently to discuss issues within the PRS. Following the meeting, a Government spokesperson said: “We are committed to delivering a fairer, good quality and more affordable private rented sector and want to support good landlords and agents to comply with their responsibilities.” With tighter regulation and an increasing tax burden, landlords’ costs have increased in recent years; it is important for the Government to now encourage landlords and to help them provide good rental accommodation to meet increasing demand.

National and local policy makers continue to rule out reform of the green belts and, at present, almost no new housing is built on green belt. Brownfield land is required for residential development and although the government is proactively identifying public sector land and assets for sale, not enough local authority land is being made available for new homes. The government aims to prioritise development on brownfield land, but many such locations are costly or complex to develop and not viable for affordable new housing.

So who should be leading an expansion in house building? Perhaps the best solution would be to task local authorities, with funding by central government borrowing. They may be best placed and motivated to find both greenfield and brownfield sites, within the public sector itself and to deal with any resulting NIMBY protests.

For many years The Frost Partnership has been a leading New Homes specialist representing developments across Buckinghamshire, Middlesex and Berkshire. Our level of commitment to each individual development is well regarded in the industry. We offer expert local knowledge, re-development opportunities, acquisition and sale of land for development, site appraisals, market analysis, onsite sales teams and marketing, working closely with high profile and local developers and house builders on individual development projects, strategic land portfolios, and large development projects across our network area.

Proactive in identifying land and buildings with development potential, our agents have extensive local market knowledge and help to realise the full potential of the development which often requires planning applications, conversion or change in use. We have considerable experience in building a strong case for change of use or planning permissions to be granted, and a track record of achieving positive results through understanding the developers’ requirements.

By renovating older properties which are not suitable for habitation, by dividing larger individual properties or by changing their potential usage from commercial to residential, much can be done to increase the UK’s housing stock. This is particularly valuable if the resulting properties are affordable and if there is an owner occupier and rental mix.

If you are a developer looking to buy potential land or property for redevelopment or if you are looking to sell your property or land, please contact The Frost Partnership or see frostweb.co.uk. We would be happy to provide an appraisal on maximising development potential and can offer advice on planning applications, conversions, change of usage or simply help you sell your property.