A decade after the 2008 financial crisis, house building is at an all time low, according to statistics.
Approximately 52% of councils built fewer homes in 2017 than in the year before the crash. The government has said that, despite this, the percentage of new house build is rising – but very slowly and not enough to keep up with demand.
The planning system is too ‘complex, difficult and costly to navigate’, according to Andrew Dixon of the Federation of Master Builders. He said it was ‘disproportionately costly’ for small builders to build homes, saying: “The planning process is essentially the same for a five unit development as it is for a 500 unit development. But the biggest factor is the lack of availability of smaller sites and smaller development opportunities, and I think the planning system has played a major role in that.”
In 2016-17, only 217,000 new build homes were constructed, two-thirds of the government target of 300,000 properties. This includes conversions of existing buildings and new homes.
Eighty percent of local authority areas saw fewer homes built annually than the government estimates is needed. However, it is not all doom and gloom as both Cumbria and North Yorkshire have exceeded targets. In Wales, Vale of Glamorgan, Flintshire and Newport also exceeded targets.
The two areas of England where the fewest homes were built were London and Greater Manchester.
Head of policy at the National Housing Federation, James Prestwich, says that 340,000 homes need to be built in England every year, but building was massively short of this target and the housing situation would only get worse. He said it had been “40 years or more since we last built enough homes to keep pace with demand.”
How can we tackle the ‘housing crisis’?
1. Make the planning process easier – Red tape and paperwork makes it harder to get planning permission in the first place. With so many hoops to go through, people are often discouraged and fall at the first hurdle.
2. Build where the demand is: in cities – Economic growth in cities, such as Cambridge and Oxford, has risen in the last 10 to 20 years. Anthony Breach, of think tank Centre for Cities, said: “There has been a massive failure to build enough housing in the cities where demand has been highest. There are highly skilled people in these areas. The number of people who want to live in these cities and experience that growth is very high, but the supply of housing has completely failed to keep up with that.”
3. Attract developers – Carlisle City Council has exceeded housing targets by marketing and encouraging developers. Corporate director of economic development, Jane Meek, said: “We have actually gone out and marketed Carlisle to developers to get developers up here.” Ms Meek praised one of the building companies based in Carlisle, saying the property developer had ‘a very good product’ although she had encouraged the firm to build more than the 30/40 homes currently under construction each year.
4. Say no to ‘nimbyism’ – A campaign group is calling for urgent action from authorities to address the situation under the banner ‘Yes in My Backyard’. John Myers, co-founder of London YIMBY, believes that communities should be empowered to build for themselves and says that it is akin to a national emergency. Mr Myers said: “This should require a national effort on the scale of what we did after the Second World War. We just need to ramp things up and pull together as a nation because if we don’t, this is just going to get worse and worse.”
Contact your local Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors registered Chartered Surveyor for an independent home survey, building survey or property valuation in London and elsewhere in England or Wales.
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