Tag Archives: city
Experts urge UK govt not to sacrifice quality for quantity in house building crusade
The UK’s oldest housing and planning charity has expressed its concern about the implications of the Government's announcement of further significant deregulation to planning. According to the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) the recent announcement from Prime Minister David Cameron that he wants to build a million new homes by 2020, many of them affordable and aimed at first time buyers, quality could be sacrificed for quantity. It will means the introduction of US style zonal planning for brownfield sites, and the removal of a range of controls that are vital to ensure that high quality homes are built, it says while fully supporting the initiative. The TCPA is concerned that local communities will have no control over the quality of many of the homes built in their areas and says that by allowing large numbers of new homes to be created without going through the usual planning processes, there is a clear risk that we will build poor quality developments which increase the pressure on community facilities such as roads, schools and doctors' surgeries. It also criticises the plant to make permanent the temporary changes to permitted development rules so that offices can be converted into homes without the need for planning permission. It says this risks creating poor quality housing with no space for children to play, no car parkin; and no consideration of the need for more local school places, GP surgeries and other community facilities and infrastructure. Granting outline planning permission for any housing built on brownfield land, in effect, represents the introduction of zonal planning, it says, a system that can work well if properly implemented with detailed procedures to ensure quality but represents a major change to English planning that the Government is introducing with no consultation, and no safeguards to safeguard quality. ‘The decision to extend permitted development from office to residential seriously undermines the ability to create decent homes in vibrant communities. The Government says it is committed to localism and that it wants planning to give power to local communities. However, the announcements mean that local communities will have even less say over how their neighbourhoods are developed,’ said Kate Henderson, TCPA chief executive. According to Hugh Ellis, head of policy at the TCPA, it is a major deregulation of local planning and the loss of community control over large parts of the urban environment.’ It is worrying that this has come at a time when we know we need smart green cities that can deal with climate change and provide healthy environments for ordinary people. These announcements are a missed opportunity to ensure we create high quality, successful and climate resilient places,’ he added. The TCPA is currently undertaking a major new project, Planning4People, which pushes for strong and democratic planning system which puts the needs of ordinary people at the heart of planning. ‘As we strive to address the housing crisis and build the homes that the nation… Continue reading
Rental growth is weak outside of Australian capital cities, new data shows
Residential rental market conditions outside of capital cities in Australia remained weak over the September 2015 quarter with prices falling or remaining flat. Weekly rents fell the most in regional Western Australia with a decrease of 2.6, they were down 2.1% in the Northern Territory and down 1.7% in Victoria. The remaining capital cities all recorded flat condition over the three months ending September 2015. Regional unit markets also showed weak rental conditions, with regional Tasmania the only area recording an increase in apartment rents over the quarter with growth of 2.2%. Unit rents were down over the quarter in regional Western Australia by 2.9%, in New South Wales by 1.5% and the remaining capital cities all showed flat rental conditions. According to CoreLogic RP Data head of research Tim Lawless there has been a significant slowdown in the rate of rental growth over the past couple of years due to new housing supply increasing and investor purchasing at record highs. He expects this trend to continue over the coming year. Annually, rents rose across some of the regional rental markets, however, Lawless noted that the performance as a whole remains relatively weak. Tasmania recorded the strongest rental growth across the country with a 2% increase for houses and 4.5% for units. He pointed out that on the other hand, the most substantial fall in rental rates, relative to September last year, were across regional Northern Territory where house rents are down 6% year on year and units down 6.5%. ‘Those regions with strong ties to the mining and resources sector are pulling regional rental lower as demand for housing continues to moderate. On the other hand, regional lifestyle and coastal markets are bucking the softening trend to some extent with showing year on year rises,’ Lawless concluded. Continue reading
Rents in England and Wales reach new record level
Rents across England and Wales reached the highest level on record between August and September in a trend increasingly divergent from the wider rate of consumer price inflation, new data shows. Average rents now stand at a new record of £816 per month, after rising by 1.6% month on month and 6.3% year on year, according to the latest buy to let index from Your Move and Reeds Rains. Trends in the private rented sector are increasingly divergent from the official measure of wider inflation. According to the Office for National Statistics consumer prices are by contrast now 0.1% lower than in September 2014. On a cumulative basis the difference with inflation is starker, the index report shows. Rents are now 24.4% higher than in January 2010, while the index of CPI inflation is just 14.1% higher over the same period. This means rents have risen by 10.3% in real terms since the start of the decade. ‘Rents are rising strongly in real terms due to the recent acceleration in wages, and the much deeper and longer term shortage of available properties across the UK of all tenures,’ said Adrian Gill, director of estate agents Reeds Rains and Your Move. ‘Meanwhile, as the price of everyday essentials plateaus and even falls, rents are no longer following the same broad trends. The cost of a place to live has now uncoupled from the cost of living. As long as this supply and demand imbalance keeps up, it is hard to see any reversal in the speed of rent rises,’ he explained. ‘In many ways housing is more essential than other expenses, so this also raises important questions about the nature of inflation. In this case, reform of the UK housing market and planning system is the only serious way to maintain steadier rental inflation,’ he added. The data also shows that five out of 10 regions of England and Wales have also seen individual rent records in September. Rents in London are rising most rapidly, up 11.6% on an annual basis to a new record of £1,301 per month. The annual change in London has also overtaken the East of England, where rents are now rising marginally more slowly, yet are still up 8.8% over the last 12 months. Record rents in the East Midlands are now 6.7% higher than a year ago, at £603 per month, while the West Midlands has seen its own record of £592 per month, or 5.2% higher than in September 2014. Meanwhile, South Western rents have risen at a comparable annual rate of 5.5% to stand at a fresh local record of £691 per month. The final region to see a local record, rents in the South East now average £831 per month, but have risen more slowly, by 3.6% since September 2014. ‘We are in the middle of… Continue reading
