Building futures
Looking at why our housing shortage needs imaginative solutions
shortage of housing in the UK is prompting some clever solutions from policy makers. When we think of new homes being built, it usually conjures images of large-scale developments, with row upon row of houses and any number of neat driveways lined up symmetrically. In more urban areas, we might think of expensive executive apartments shiny with glass, chrome and polished stone. But new build housing is facing some issues. In June of this year, Homes England reported that their housing programmes delivered 37,330 new houses starting on-site and 34,995 houses between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021. The proportion of affordable homes started and completed was down on the previous year. This was a result of a slowdown in housebuilding activity caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic and the political upheaval of Brexit will remain features of the new build landscape. Supplies of materials such as timber, steel, cement and roof tiles have been dwindling for months, while prices have risen. Imagination and choice are exactly what buyers require, and it’s part of the government’s broader effort to regenerate our high streets. Other recent announcements have also included giving councils new powers to turn derelict buildings into homes in cases where regeneration plans have stalled. The high street needs help and the government is alert to this. The latest addition to ‘permitted development rights’ (PDR) mean anyone can convert commercial, business or service buildings into new residential homes without seeking planning approval from the local council. There are limited circumstances where the council still has to issue permissions, but the new rules,
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announced in March this year and which took effect on 1 August 2021, mean developers can convert Class E properties – shops, offices, restaurant, cafés, health services, nurseries, gyms and leisure facilities – into flats or houses with far less red tape to negotiate. The then Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick made a formal statement earlier this summer, claiming that further relaxing of the rules, which have been around for a while, will “breathe new life into commercial areas and high streets by bringing vacant buildings back into use as new high street homes”.
LONDON PROPERTY MATTERS · kfh.co.uk
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06/10/2021 15:06
