I can believe there are brownfield sites in London that can't meet the 35% #AffordableHousing threshold. I just don't believe they'll build out quickly and deliver useful homes if we slash AH policies, given weak market demand. A job for grant, if ever there was one!
London has 289,000 potential homes with planning permission that have not yet been built. Do we really need a "presumption in favour of developers building whatever they like" on brownfield, or do we need a capital grant top up for stalled sites to boost Social and Affordable?
PDR homes have at points been created with no windows, no space standards, no bin collections.
Who would live in homes like this, built below normal standards? People with no choice, like homeless people. NOT usually aspirant homeowners.
PDR homes are far more likely to be used as Temporary Accommodation or private rented homes for people on low incomes.
This makes sense. The whole point of PDR is to undercut quality standards. When developers don't have to get planning permission, they can "create" crap homes.
The government is introducing new Permitted Development Rights to make it even easier to convert office blocks etc., in the hope this may put a dent in England's homeownership crisis.
It won't.
Since 2013, PDR has created 100,000 homes. Very few have ended up in homeownership.
Cutting #SocialHousing and AH from brownfield sites would actually slow down development, as these sites would be left seeking buyers for market sale homes in the context of higher mortgage costs and squeezed household budgets. Whereas demand for AH is virtually unlimited.
The problem with brownfield development is NOT slow planning. The problem is profitability - it costs more to remediate & develop, so developers prefer fresh greenfield sites.
The only way Gove's policy can possibly work is by cutting #AffordableHousing etc. from brownfield.
The high-density brownfield development model is very different to the way volume housebuilders build homes on greenfield sites.
Here’s a brief explanation of it from March last year
builtplace.com/market-comme...
This is the slow death of policy and funding programmes by a thousand strings, and we see it all over Whitehall & Westminster.
1. Announce new money
2. Run expensive competitive bidding process to access money
3. Allocate money to LAs
4. Take money back
5. Re-announce money 🤑
2/3rds of £4.2bn UK Housing Infrastructure Fund unspent despite homes crisis: “It has been killed by the economy and ridiculous business case requirements". A perfect example of UK government's talent for preventing money pledged from ever being spent. www.ft.com/content/1977...
Great to see new #SocialHousing supply tick up in the latest stats - but England is still losing around 4k more social homes each year than we build.
Things are now getting worse slightly less quickly than they were.
Excited to talk about planning reform with a brilliant panel at tomorrow's #housingconference - no, I really am!
How can the system deliver more #AffordableHousing?
How can we improve Section 106?
How can we build sustainable places - not just units?
