Labour Housing Plans

[thewanderer]

I'm going to go against the grain on this one I think because I don't think the solution necessarily is to build affordable housing. We need to build more big houses. All mass house building schemes in the past have been on small family size houses, primarily 3 bedrooms or fewer. There are lots of people in houses with people sharing rooms that would like a bigger house but the cost jump from a 3 to a 4 bed in most areas is very steep. It makes more sense to build bigger houses so people can move up the ladder, vacating the lower rungs (which increases the supply of affordable housing for sale). There should also be a lot more done to encourage people to downsize. A large proportion of the large houses are owned by people with adult-aged children that have moved out. Those people don't need 4 bed houses but there is no real incentive to downsize.

Only 21.1% of houses have 4 or more bedrooms.

We definitely need more houses in total but building small, cheap, affordable homes probably isn't the answer.


I don't think people do want to live like that. They do it because it is more affordable and cheaper and they can't afford the transport on top of the rent but lockdown in particular highlighted how much people want more space, especially private outdoor space. We already have some of the smallest dwellings compared to other countries, it doesn't make sense to cram more people into smaller spaces.

Developers are sat on 1 million possible properties that have planning consent we do not need to make it cheaper for them to build we need to revoke the planning consent if they do not build within 5 years

You need to do more reading, large developers do this as they need a long term supply of of land to build on. The reason is that gaining planning permission is high risk and is why the market is dominated by large developers who can afford to spread risk across multiple sites.

 

[Nano]

Of course. I would dearly love to live in a multi-bedroomed mansion in acres of lovely countryside. And as much as I'm a Socialist I recognise that we can't all have everything that we want. The "Lockdown" thing is likely to be a once in a lifetime experience. Pandemics about once a century but if we got one next year I think the response would be more nuanced in light of the experience of 2020. The old solution of terraces housing is another way to go, with perhaps houses facing into green spaces rather than onto a road? If we are going to house everyone that needs a house we need flexible thinking and a variety of solutions, not just more Ingleby Barwicks.

Lockdown might have been a once in a lifetime situation but it's impact had changed things. Work from home really kicked in due to the pandemic. People are spending far more time in their home and want them to have dedicated office spaces and outdoor space. It doesn't have to be private outdoor space but people would prefer it. Small city centre flats near work are no longer necessary and/or preferable.

People also tend not to want to buy flats. They rent them until they can afford a house. Building more just means more money to landlords.

Terraced housing is definitely an option. Those can be built with gardens and drives as well. They don't have to be the old terraces with no parking and a tiny yard.

 

[h_m_boro]

Rubbish. We have more social housing than any country in Europe bar Austria. The problem is the lack of supply of market rate homes.

Okay

 

[newyddion]

Once again, a political statement by a party (both Tories and Labour guilty of this) that simply cannot be achieved.

1.5m homes - 200-250k per year currently - over 5 years. Not happening.

There is no will from developers to produce large scale social housing estates as there is simply not the return on them. It's all ££££ and profit.

Government/ LAs don't have the money to subsidise house building.

Where are these going to be built. Greenbelt? Brown field sites? High rises.....costing a premium.

And the small matter of......we don't have the skilled workforce to be able to physically build the units. Or manufacturing capabilities (currently) if we wanted to go down the factory produced, off site prefab route.

The lack of new social/affordable housing is a disgrace......and the problem is resolved in a shiny new pledge, not actually delivering the fooking things

And here's a thought. Stop greedy landlords owning multiple properties (tax the sh*t out of them) and start to look at the number of empty properties just sitting there rotting away. Bring these up to modern standards (Retrofit works) rather simply looking at new build all of the time.

Lot of things could be done, but unfortunately it's a ££££ driven sector so unless there is a fast buck to be made .....there really isn't the will.

Retail/commercial/industrial areas to be opened up for housing.. or removing a lot of the red tape.

Lots of high streets going down the pan.. old industrial areas going.. never to return.

Pubs are being turned into houses all over the place.. churches, places of worship etc etc etc

Then we’ve got the return of the pre fabs!

CHINA could build a million houses and ship them over! No more waste lands.. no more land banking.. no more empty properties.. compulsory purchases? compulsory rent controlled letting!

 

[newusername]

There should also be a lot more done to encourage people to downsize. A large proportion of the large houses are owned by people with adult-aged children that have moved out. Those people don't need 4 bed houses but there is no real incentive to downsize.

Only 21.1% of houses have 4 or more bedrooms.

Agree, we need to get the old codgers out of houses too big for them.

The whole social care system that we can't afford is predicated on supporting old people in their homes, fitting home adaptions (entrance ramps, handrails, stair lifts, accessible bathrooms), monitoring, getting carers to drive round & spend 15 minutes with them giving them food.

Politicians are then bending over backwards to ensure they pay as little to any nursing care as possible, pay as little as inheritance tax as possible, so they can pass on that wealth to their children.

 

[RedAsABeetroot]

2) Extend 'Right to Buy' to people renting in the private sector. Problem solved.

Too true. Zero private rentals available will really help the shortage of housing.

 

[h_m_boro]

Retail/commercial/industrial areas to be opened up for housing.. or removing a lot of the red tape.

Lots of high streets going down the pan.. old industrial areas going.. never to return.

Pubs are being turned into houses all over the place.. churches, places of worship etc etc etc

Then we’ve got the return of the pre fabs!

CHINA could build a million houses and ship them over! No more waste lands.. no more land banking.. no more empty properties.. compulsory purchases? compulsory rent controlled letting!

All feasible - have been involved in pretty much all of them. Working on a £55m scheme to put apartments on an old gas works. Worked on pub/apartment conversions, and creating apartments to upper floors of commercial properties. It's happening.

Regarding the pre-fab option and China - we need to keep manufacturing of this type in the country. Why grow the Chinese economy when we could look to do our own?

How would compulsory rent controlled letting work - like a cap on rent?

 

[HolgateCorner]

All feasible - have been involved in pretty much all of them. Working on a £55m scheme to put apartments on an old gas works. Worked on pub/apartment conversions, and creating apartments to upper floors of commercial properties. It's happening.

Regarding the pre-fab option and China - we need to keep manufacturing of this type in the country. Why grow the Chinese economy when we could look to do our own?

How would compulsory rent controlled letting work - like a cap on rent?

Factory manufactured houses are struggling to get off the ground in the UK, unbelievably they are 10 to 20% more expensive than traditional build. That may get sorted but design life then becomes an issue - people know that traditional build houses will last basically as long as you want them to last and that compares very favourably with a 20 years guarantee from a factory which probably will not exist in 10 years time. And China? Do me a favour! £1000 a month mortgage (if you can get one on a factory build) for a house with no track record.

Loads of other issues as well, too many to list here.

 

[B_G]

How would compulsory rent controlled letting work - like a cap on rent?

There should be a cap on rent based on the house value. People renting out houses worth less than £100k for £600+ per month is a disgrace. It's no wonder young people can't get out their parents house.

 

[newyddion]

All feasible - have been involved in pretty much all of them. Working on a £55m scheme to put apartments on an old gas works. Worked on pub/apartment conversions, and creating apartments to upper floors of commercial properties. It's happening.

Regarding the pre-fab option and China - we need to keep manufacturing of this type in the country. Why grow the Chinese economy when we could look to do our own?

How would compulsory rent controlled letting work - like a cap on rent?

We need to keep manufacturing in this country.. but we don’t. Pretty sure the Chinese will have somewhere doing this sort of thing. 500k houses at £10k a piece.. summat daft anyway.

Compulsory rent controlled letting.. so like a compulsory purchase for a long term unoccupied property. Goes into council housing stock.