It’s been nearly 18 months since Sajid Javid, the Tory
Government’s Housing Minister published the White Paper “Fixing the Broken UK Housing
Market”, meanwhile Southampton property values continue to drop at 4.4% (year
on year for the council area) and the number of new homes being constructed locally
bumps along at a snail’s pace, creating a potential perfect storm for those
looking to buy and sell.
The White Paper is important for the UK and Southampton people,
as it will ensure we have long-term stability and longevity in property market
as whole. Southampton home-owners and Southampton landlords need to be aware of
these issues in the report to ensure they don’t lose out and ensure the local
housing market is fit for purpose. The White Paper wanted more homes to be
built in the next couple of decades, so it might seem counter-intuitive for
existing home-owners and landlords to encourage more homes to be built and a
change in the direction of housing provision – as this would appear to have a
negative effect on their own property.
Yet the country needs a diversified and fluid property
market to allow the economy as a whole to grow and flourish ... which in turn
will be a greater influence on whether prices go up or down in the long term. I
am sure every homeowner or landlord in Southampton doesn’t want another housing
crisis like we had in 1974, 1988 and most recently in 2008.
Now, as Sajid Javid has moved on to the Home Secretary role,
the 17th Housing Minister in 20 years (poisoned chalice or journeyman’s cabinet
post) James Brokenshire has been given the task of making this White Paper come
alive. The White Paper had a well-defined notion of what the issues were.
The first of the four points brought up was to give local
authorities powers to speed up house building and ensure developers complete
new homes on time. Secondly, statutory methods demanding local authorities and builders
build at higher densities (i.e. more
houses per hectare) where appropriate. The other two points were incentives
for smaller builders to take a larger share of the new homes market and help
for people renting.
However, lets go back to the two initial points of planning
and density.
(1) Planning
For planning to work, we need a robust Planning Dept.
Looking at data from the Local Government’s Association, in Southampton, the
council is below the regional average, only spending £28.55 per person for the
Planning Authority, compared the regional average of £38.14 per head – which
will mean the planning department will be hard pressed to meet those targets.
Also, 39% of planning applications are decided within the statutory
8-week initial period, below the regional average of 81% (see the graph
below). I am slightly disappointed with
the numbers for our local authority when it comes to the planning and the
budget allowed by our Politicians to this vital service.
(2) Density of Population
47.5 people
live in every hectare (or 2.471 acres) in Southampton
It won’t surprise you that 236,882 Southampton residents are
living in the urban conurbations of the authority, giving a density of 47.5
people per hectare (much lower than I initially
thought).
I would agree with the Governments’ ambition to make more
efficient use of land and avoid building homes at low densities where there is
a shortage of land for meeting identified housing needs, ensuring that the
density and form of development reflect the character, accessibility and
infrastructure.
It’s all very good building lots of houses – but we need the
infrastructure to go with it.
Talking to a lot of Southampton people, their biggest fear
of all this building is a lack of infrastructure for those extra houses (the
extra roads, doctors surgeries, schools etc.). I know most Southampton
homeowners and landlords want more houses to be built to house their family and
friends ... but irrespective of the density ... it’s the infrastructure that
goes with the housing that is just as important ... and this is where I think the
White Paper failed to go as far as I feel it should have done.
Interesting times ahead I believe!
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