Affordable housing

[Ihavenojob]

I watched a video about new builds and the number of them deemed "affordable". When new houses are built, most are private, some are social and some are affordable. The affordable are sold at cost plus 3%. Problem is, when labour got in they mucked about with the way the lists of eligible purchasers were kept, making it a government decision rather than local councils. The result is that fewer people can now buy them, so thousands sit empty and builders are not getting paid, so they won't build any more. Social and council can't afford to buy them either. Well done labour, another well thought out scheme. 3 guesses for what will happen to the empty houses.

 

[pete01]

3 guesses for what will happen to the empty houses.

Guess 1, they will give them to the homeless?

 

[aveatry]

Guess 2

 

[blup]

For years Councils couldn’t invest in social housing unless they were debt free, now they are generally limited to reinvesting right to buy proceeds in the purchase of land typically at inflated values. The value of land can be reduced by allowing its purchase at existing use value only, eg farm land on the outskirts of town or land identified for new settlements.

 

[Knave of Hearts]

There is a bold suggestion to solve the problem of Asylum Seekers in Hotels:

The real problem with Britain's asylum hotels - and the woman with a bold plan to solve it

Britain's asylum hotels problem - and the bold idea to solve it

Instead of using private contractors to provide hotel rooms to asylum seekers, could paying councils to buy more properties be the solution?

www.bbc.co.uk

It partly involves buying the Builders 'social housing'.

I'd go even further.
When Ukrainian asylum seekers were first arriving, they were hosted and accommodated in volunteer homes.

There may be many people who would willingly host and accommodate asylum seekers in their own homes. Especially if the government were paying for their accommodation.
There would also be a degree of mentoring happening naturally.

 

[Notch7]

I watched a video about new builds and the number of them deemed "affordable". When new houses are built, most are private, some are social and some are affordable. The affordable are sold at cost plus 3%. Problem is, when labour got in they mucked about with the way the lists of eligible purchasers were kept, making it a government decision rather than local councils. The result is that fewer people can now buy them, so thousands sit empty and builders are not getting paid, so they won't build any more. Social and council can't afford to buy them either. Well done labour, another well thought out scheme. 3 guesses for what will happen to the empty houses.

I wonder where this came from because I can't find any information about this.

I can see lots talk about problems with affordable housing but nothing to do with Labour.

 

[Ihavenojob]

Are affordable houses only affordable for the first purchaser? If a small Stepford estate pops up with some being affordable, what happens when one is sold on or rented out, do they stay cheap, or do they go for the going rate of the area? A friends son bought an affordable property, the only difference was the lack of finishing, i.e, no carpets or tiles on walls, less kitchen cabinets. the structure and layout was the same. Any rules about selling affordable houses after living in them?

 

[diy_fun_uk]

A guy on the QT panel this week made a great point. The UK has got itself well and truly bound up in planning restrictions and an overly bureaucratic system in general when it comes to planning and/or implementing nearly anything.

Year in year out housing is talked about, with politicians and parties saying how they'll resolve the issue. What's the result? Year in year out, failed target after failed target.

The guy referred to something that's been years in the planning, the planning document runs to 300,000 pages, has cost hundreds of millions in the planning, and still not a shovel in the ground.

Ok I've gone a bit OT however it links to the topic of this thread. We've become sh1te at planning and implementing.

 

[SPLINE]

nothing to do with Labour.

House prices are high because of high demand for houses.

Demand for houses is high because there are too many people in the country.

There are too many people in the country because of deliberate actions of governments.

Those governments were of the Labour and Conservative parties.

Prat.

 

[Murdochcat]

The only way to make homes more affordable is to reduce the population

 

[ReganAndCarter]

Guess 1, they will give them to the homeless?

Yes, the homeless of Afghanistan and Syria.

 

[morqthana]

I watched a video about new builds and the number of them deemed "affordable". When new houses are built, most are private, some are social and some are affordable. The affordable are sold at cost plus 3%. Problem is, when labour got in they mucked about with the way the lists of eligible purchasers were kept, making it a government decision rather than local councils. The result is that fewer people can now buy them, so thousands sit empty and builders are not getting paid, so they won't build any more. Social and council can't afford to buy them either. Well done labour, another well thought out scheme. 3 guesses for what will happen to the empty houses.

Before 2011, most new affordable homes delivered were homes for social rent – but by 2022/23, this had fallen to 15%..
.
.
In this briefing we estimate the number of homes for social rent fell from 4.0 million in March 2013 to around 3.8 million in March 2023

Remind me which party was in power between 2011 and 2023?

 

[morqthana]

A guy on the QT panel this week made a great point. The UK has got itself well and truly bound up in planning restrictions and an overly bureaucratic system in general when it comes to planning and/or implementing nearly anything.

Developers have secured planning permission for over 1.4 million homes since 2007 but have not gone on to build them. Common reasons for this include developers wanting to increase the land’s value before selling it on and land banking to slow building rates and maintain high house prices.


“The government doesn’t need to rip up the planning system to build 1.5 million new homes. Many of the blockers to housing and infrastructure delivery are not planning related. Reasons include water shortages, private developers slowing delivery to maintain profits, and a lack of strategic oversight of large infrastructure projects.

“Market driven house-building is broken, and won’t deliver the 1.5 million homes the government has promised.

“Years of deregulation and cuts to organisations like the Environment Agency means the planning system now operates as the last bastion of defence against bad design, nature degradation, pollution and over extraction of our waterways. We must support local, regional and national planners to do their job.

“This is not about pitting NIMBYs against YIMBYs, it is about ensuring the government achieves its ambitious targets whilst also maintaining local support and high quality.”

 

[Andy165]

Heat Pumps are being promoted as the way forward. Why are they not a requirement in "new builds" ? Heat Pumps require larger radiators and usually 15mm minimum size piping to radiators. Underfloor heating works best. Lot of new builds use plastic piping and 10mm to small sized radiators. Are the "House Builders" achieving Heat Pump standards for the future ? Or are they after quickest profit and return ? The current problems are not regulations but profiteers "kicking the arse out of it". Maximum profit today and stuff the future.

 

[Notch7]

House prices are high because of high demand for houses.

Demand for houses is high because there are too many people in the country.

There are too many people in the country because of deliberate actions of governments.

Those governments were of the Labour and Conservative parties.

Prat.

you poor thing….,you’ve been programmed to believe all the UKs problems are the result of immigrants.


These are the real causes:


1) the root can be traced back to Thatcher flogging 1.5 million council houses.

2) then there was the housing boom in the 1980s

3) then there was the deregulation of mortgages with interest only and self certs during Blair years

4) then there was massive Quantitative Easing in 2007, 2008 then during the austerity years 2010 - 2020

5) then the BoE did a big lump of QE in 2016 because the pound slumped because of brexit

6) the big 6 house builders have been controlling the market for decades, land banking whilst they release properties for sale at a pace slow enough to ensure supply stays behind denand.


Poor SPLINE the big supporter of capitalism, is too programmed to realise capitalism is the cause of the housing crisis



Hey Spline do you think Reform….who are free market capitalists, are gonna want to reduce house price rises?