On Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke in Dudley, vowing to “build better, build greener” as well as adjust planning regulations to “build faster” and “build a more beautiful Britain”. I promised.
If you guessed that Mr. Johnson has a passion for “architecture,” you’d be correct. The overall gist of today’s announcement was that the Prime Minister would make it easier for developers to build more homes by easing restrictions on existing or previously occupied space.
Regarding building new homes on previously non-residential sites, the Prime Minister said it would be easier than ever to develop brownfield sites into “great new homes”. Additionally, in perhaps the most original feature of the announcement, the Prime Minister said commercial properties will now be able to be repurposed into residential space without planning permission or local authority approval.
Builders will no longer need planning permission to demolish commercial or residential properties, making it easier to convert existing vacant land into residential use. Mr Boris also announced that homeowners and developers will be able to build additional space on top of existing properties through a fast-track planning scheme, subject to consultation with neighbours.
Commenting on the regulatory changes, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a speech:
“Time is money, and the delays in newt counting in our system have a huge impact on our country’s productivity and prosperity.”
It may be a characteristically clumsy statement, but the truth is that housing construction needs to be consistent and in line with demand. He said the inability to deliver on this task was a “chronic failure of the British state” and that not enough homes had been built “for decades”.
Hooray for less red tape, or bad for a poor quality of life?
One of the problems raised with this approach is that less regulation naturally encourages lower standards.
Tom Fians, policy and campaigns director at rural charity CPRE, said encouraging brownfield development would reduce pressure on greenfield sites. But he also said:
“Relaxing planning regulations and abolishing red tape will not deliver better quality places. It is already too easy to build low-quality homes, our research shows. Three quarters of large housing developments were so mediocre or poorly designed that they should not have been granted planning permission.
“The best way to deliver the places we need, at the pace we need, is to make it easier for local governments to develop local plans and hold developers to those plans.”
Peter Apps, deputy editor of Inside Housing, added:
Reducing this means that the homes that are developed at lower prices and sold at higher prices will be of poorer quality and will not necessarily be built faster.
If you want to build faster, you need to combine contract lengths (rental, sales, and social). Ironically, his focus on “getting people onto the housing ladder” is what drives it.
— Peter Apps (@PeteApps) June 30, 2020
One safeguard that Prime Minister Boris Johnson was willing to introduce was that pubs, libraries and village shops would be exempted from brownfield and conversion plans announced on Tuesday. This is because the government considers these to be “essential to the vitality of local communities.”
Is it just more homes or more properties?
Another potential issue with today’s announcement is that homebuilding and homeownership do not necessarily equate. Building 250,000 new homes a year is an admirable goal, but the reality is that much of it will inevitably end up as additions to portfolios and the private rental market.
We can debate whether this is a bad thing, but it may be misleading to claim that new “housing” is being built rapidly. As economist Paul Collier has noted, homeownership increased exponentially to about 70% in 1980 and has declined exponentially since then. Increasing home ownership requires more than just building properties, it requires making it easier for first-time buyers to get onto the ladder.
In Boris Johnson’s defense, this concern is represented by a new feature called the ‘First Homes’ scheme, a new pilot of 1,500 new homes to be sold at a 30% discount exclusively to first-time buyers.・It is a program.
Additionally, the government has pledged to spend £12bn on a 180,000-home affordable housing program over the next eight years, a notable setback from its previous five-year plan of spending the equivalent of £12.2bn.
Shadow Business Secretary Ed Miliband said:
“And now we know that this ‘FDR’ speech has cut affordable housing costs by £12 billion over five years in Budget 2020 and now £12 billion over eight years. It would be a complete scam.”
what do we think?
To be honest, it’s quite complicated. The new rules are expected to come into force by September, once planning law changes are approved.
Building new homes should always be encouraged, but a more proactive approach to encouraging first-time buyers would be more in line with Boris Johnson’s trademark rhetoric of national potential and opportunity. I would.
As far as online reactions are concerned, so far more “left-wing” press comments have lamented this announcement, while more “right-wing” press comments have criticized the overconstruction and the potential it could cause to the community. expressed concern about sexual harm. There are also ecosystem issues, with some calling on the Prime Minister to limit immigration rather than housing supply to address demand for new homes.
