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The constant mantra of 'we need more homes, we need more homes' is simply nonsense.
I don't think it's nonsense, but it's highly South East specific, and in particular London. If you want to buy a house in the many parts of the country, no problem. They're cheap as chips. The problem is that everyone there (well, nearly) is on the minimum wage or benefits. The places where the jobs are, particularly the well-paying jobs, are highly centralized and as a result the house prices in those particular locations are astro-fucking-nomical, with commuter belts extending up to 100 miles outwards.
I agree the problem isn't a lack of housing per se. The problem is the highly localised demand for housing. And in these Covid19 times, with remote working becoming the norm, this is the ideal time to try and reverse that. Trouble is, all the Daily Mail-reading Boomers will be up in arms if it turns out their family home that they bought for two-and-a-half shillings in the mid seventies is no longer worth a couple of mill...
Brommers-
Anecdotal evidence from Cornwall that places that haven’t sold for some time now are.
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Chicken and egg though, in the new Covid/home-working era you need an advance party of coffee shops to precede you - otherwise you might have to buy a Nescafe and hot water, and that's unthinkable.
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The problem is the highly localised demand for housing.
Well, that's one of the problems, but not the problem. All the others I've mentioned ...
hundreds of thousands are empty, either for 'buy to leave', because they're in areas where the economy has been eviscerated by decades of rubbish economic policy, because their owners can't afford to renovate them, or because people are sitting on them as second or third 'homes'. Then there are many buildings at risk whose owners have deliberately run them down because they don't care about their conservation value and want to knock them down to build some crap that pays them rent
... contribute, too. All the 'Government' is doing is to kowtow to the endless demands of developers 'to cut red tape', i.e. dismantle further what little remains of sensible planning regulations, which is, indeed, a total nonsense.
The upshot of what they're destroying of the few remaining safeguards will be luxury houses that very few can afford, rubbish housing built in the wrong areas, and a further encouraging of foreign investment in housing.
Their proposed re-classification system of land is such absolute nonsense that 'absolute' is too weak a term. Local authorities should simply designate all their land as 'protect' and tell the Government to go away (but I expect that there will be a presumption against that).
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Trouble is, all the Daily Mail-reading Boomers will be up in arms if it turns out their family home that they bought for two-and-a-half shillings in the mid seventies is no longer worth a couple of mill...
My heart bleeds...
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And in these Covid19 times, with remote working becoming the norm, this is the ideal time to try and reverse that.
Recently I'm seeing a lot of stepping back from the enthusiasm for pure homeworking. Companies and commentators are recognising some things do happen better and faster face to face. I think the enthusiasm is for a hybrid model of a few days a week/month on site. That limits how far away people will base themselves by both time and travel costs.
Also, the covid experience of working from home has been abnormally quiet. As the economy starts up, so does traffic, building work, road work etc. Which will make home less conducive to conference calls or concentration.
And actually both are a good thing for people who want to stay employed, because if ones job really can be 100% remote, it very likely doesn't need a UK based person earning a UK salary.
fussballclub
Dammit
Oliver Schick
spenceey
brokenbetty
More on the utterly, utterly nonsensical plans being announced, clearly drawn up by people who are completely clueless about planning and are trying to massage targets to make Johnson & co. look good and line his donors' pockets.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/aug/03/up-to-45000-new-homes-to-be-green-lit-ahead-of-planning-shake-up
The constant mantra of 'we need more homes, we need more homes' is simply nonsense. There are enough homes to house everybody as it is, but hundreds of thousands are empty, either for 'buy to leave', because they're in areas where the economy has been eviscerated by decades of rubbish economic policy, because their owners can't afford to renovate them, or because people are sitting on them as second or third 'homes'. Then there are many buildings at risk whose owners have deliberately run them down because they don't care about their conservation value and want to knock them down to build some crap that pays them rent. All of these things could easily be fixed with a non-corrupt political will.
Building more all the time will only do one thing, namely to continue to overheat an already ridiculously-overheated housing market, and will (not even paradoxically) lead to more homelessness as of the housing built, almost none will be social housing, and more people will be priced out of the rush to one of the few 'secure' investments still left in this ravaged and unbalanced economy.