“Since the Second World War, housing in Britain has become increasingly expensive and scarce. Following a pre-war housing boom in the 1930s, during which decade more houses were built than ever before or since, between 1947 and 1955, Labour and Conservative governments enacted strict new planning rules controlling development. These rules gave local councils the power to block nearly all housebuilding, with little incentive to permit it.”
Because current home owners would lose value on their home if more were built.
Personally I don’t think planning laws go far enough. Recently someone on my street bought a honda, I think they should have had to have a consultation before they were allowed, it doesn’t fit in with the area’s character of mostly Land Rovers. And don’t get me started on PS5s, they are making too many and driving prices of gaming up, we should force them to make 60% affordable PS2s.
“To this day, the building rate of 2.3 percent achieved in 1954 was the highest post-war building rate that Britain achieved.”
And that was under a Conservative government.
One of the most significant effects of Thatcherism/Reaganomics becoming the orthodoxy in both the Conservatives and the New Labour governments was the complete renunciation of the state’s role to build adequate housing. We’ve been living with the consequences of this ever since.
The major housebuilders are sitting on over 1 million granted planning permissions. The vast majority of applications for residential construction are approved.
I’m not saying planning reform isn’t needed (it’s especially an obstacle for individuals and new enterants), but planning isn’t the main obstacle. We have a lack of capacity and the privatisation of the entire process gives a strong collective incentive to throttle supply so high margins are achieved instead.
It’s all gonna come to a head; I reckon on 2 or 3 elections time. Someone offering an extreme solution is going to get an awful lot of votes. The political class will wonder how he/she got in but it’s blindingly obvious for all us proles urgent action is required immediately.
Here’s why: restricted supply = higher prices.
Think you won’t get enough for a house you’re building? Don’t bother! Wait ten years and have another look.
I was the engineer on a large residential project. We put in all the drainage, roads, car parks, services etc then they stopped. Thought they’d get more in ten years so just pulled everyone off.
And that stuff is where you make money in groundworks. They’d have to pay a premium for whoever did what was left. And it was still worth abandoning it.
Because it’s the most densely populated country in Europe and is in the middle of a mass extinction level event.
It seems to be very location dependant.
Down in the south east where I live, new builds are being thrown up absolutely everywhere.
Going by landmass on google maps(which doesn’t mean much I know) around 30% of the houses in my established town have been built within the past 10 years. Similar to other towns near me.
Then I constantly see how the uk aren’t building enough…
Because we have a generation of people who think house prices going up is only a good thing.
It’s not ‘Britain’ it’s just tories. They’ve been in charge for 15 fucking years and are ideologically opposed to building new housing (at least new housing that isn’t going to fall apart in 6 months)
Build all the support network needed for housing and don’t build shit quality and most people will be fine.
Sadly this costs more money and everyone wants to be fucking cheap which is incredibly short sighted.
It’s not about house prices or more houses causing existing prices dropping. Our planning laws are bloody byzantine and complex, further, locals object, environmentalists object. Also, everyone wants houses, we should consider building up 4 and 5 stories but people want them even less. So it becomes a hideous spiral
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Summary:
“Since the Second World War, housing in Britain has become increasingly expensive and scarce. Following a pre-war housing boom in the 1930s, during which decade more houses were built than ever before or since, between 1947 and 1955, Labour and Conservative governments enacted strict new planning rules controlling development. These rules gave local councils the power to block nearly all housebuilding, with little incentive to permit it.”
Because current home owners would lose value on their home if more were built.
Personally I don’t think planning laws go far enough. Recently someone on my street bought a honda, I think they should have had to have a consultation before they were allowed, it doesn’t fit in with the area’s character of mostly Land Rovers. And don’t get me started on PS5s, they are making too many and driving prices of gaming up, we should force them to make 60% affordable PS2s.
“To this day, the building rate of 2.3 percent achieved in 1954 was the highest post-war building rate that Britain achieved.”
And that was under a Conservative government.
One of the most significant effects of Thatcherism/Reaganomics becoming the orthodoxy in both the Conservatives and the New Labour governments was the complete renunciation of the state’s role to build adequate housing. We’ve been living with the consequences of this ever since.
https://fullfact.org/economy/who-built-more-council-houses-margaret-thatcher-or-new-labour/
The major housebuilders are sitting on over 1 million granted planning permissions. The vast majority of applications for residential construction are approved.
I’m not saying planning reform isn’t needed (it’s especially an obstacle for individuals and new enterants), but planning isn’t the main obstacle. We have a lack of capacity and the privatisation of the entire process gives a strong collective incentive to throttle supply so high margins are achieved instead.
It’s all gonna come to a head; I reckon on 2 or 3 elections time. Someone offering an extreme solution is going to get an awful lot of votes. The political class will wonder how he/she got in but it’s blindingly obvious for all us proles urgent action is required immediately.
Here’s why: restricted supply = higher prices.
Think you won’t get enough for a house you’re building? Don’t bother! Wait ten years and have another look.
I was the engineer on a large residential project. We put in all the drainage, roads, car parks, services etc then they stopped. Thought they’d get more in ten years so just pulled everyone off.
And that stuff is where you make money in groundworks. They’d have to pay a premium for whoever did what was left. And it was still worth abandoning it.
Because it’s the most densely populated country in Europe and is in the middle of a mass extinction level event.
It seems to be very location dependant.
Down in the south east where I live, new builds are being thrown up absolutely everywhere.
Going by landmass on google maps(which doesn’t mean much I know) around 30% of the houses in my established town have been built within the past 10 years. Similar to other towns near me.
Then I constantly see how the uk aren’t building enough…
Because we have a generation of people who think house prices going up is only a good thing.
It’s not ‘Britain’ it’s just tories. They’ve been in charge for 15 fucking years and are ideologically opposed to building new housing (at least new housing that isn’t going to fall apart in 6 months)
Build all the support network needed for housing and don’t build shit quality and most people will be fine.
Sadly this costs more money and everyone wants to be fucking cheap which is incredibly short sighted.
It’s not about house prices or more houses causing existing prices dropping. Our planning laws are bloody byzantine and complex, further, locals object, environmentalists object. Also, everyone wants houses, we should consider building up 4 and 5 stories but people want them even less. So it becomes a hideous spiral