ROOF Blog

Despite falling house prices research from Circle Anglia has found that a third of Britons believe that home ownership is still out of reach to them. People living in the South West are the most pessimistic with 46 per cent saying they will not be able to own a house and 42 per cent in Wales feeling the same way. London had the lowest figure with only one in five worrying they will never be able to afford their own place.

More than 100,000 young adults will leave rural towns and villages in England in the next three years due to a shortage in affordable houses research by the National Housing Federation (NHF) has found. It estimated 103,000 people aged 24 to 35 will migrate out of rural places to urban locations by 2012, because they cannot afford to live there. Around 100,000 new affordable homes are needed to be built to meet demand in rural areas in the next 10 years. The Federation is launching a new campaign today aimed at tackling the housing crisis in the countryside.

The lack of mortgage finance is widening the wealth gap between rich and poor and creating a more polarised society, research by the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit (NHPAU). The body says that a continuing affordability problem was making children of affluent owners richer still and the poorest even more disadvantaged – the wealthiest 10 per cent of the population has seen home values rise at more than three times the rate of the poorest 10 per cent, and the impact will continue for generations. Other consequences of the lack of housing affordability include poorer health, unemployment and a housing market prone to boom and bust.

In London, mayor Boris Johnson has said he would review his commitment to deliver 50,000 new affordable homes in light of the difficult economic circumstances. City Hall released a statement outlining the mayor’s plan to change the rules on affordable housing, and repeated his commitment to removing the London-wide affordable housing target of 50 per cent.

The right to buy for newly built affordable homes in Scotland will be abolished by the Scottish government. Under a draft housing Bill, the government is also consulting on a proposal to block tenants moving into existing affordable homes from exercising the right to buy. This move could mean 18,000 homes were kept for affordable rents for the coming decade. Shelter Scotland has welcomed the move, calling it the ‘death knell’ of an outdated policy.

Black and minority ethnic (BME) communities are changing, and housing providers must plan to meet their changing needs, the Race Equality Commission says. Its research predicts a big rise in the BME population, but the economic crisis is making home ownership more difficult to access, increasing interest in social and affordable housing.

A major new political initiative will be launched today – the people’s charter for change sets out six policy priorities it hopes will force social change for a fairer Britain. It calls for a fairer economy with progressive taxes, control over the banking system and guarantees for all pensions, mortgages and savings; more and better jobs; three million new publicly owned homes and controlled rents; equality for all including equal pay for women and ending child poverty; and cancelling of third world debts.

Local residents will be given more time to respond to the government’s second eco-town consultation, after housing minister Margaret Beckett extended the deadline for responses. She said: ‘Eco-towns present a superb opportunity to provide more affordable housing… But it is vital we identify the right locations for [them] and I will not support any proposal that our assessment and consultation concludes is unsuitable.’ 

Councils are facing a funding gap of up to £7 billion this year because of a fall in section 106 contributions. EC Harris consultancy estimated that the fall in anticipated income from ‘planning gain’ deals where developers agree to provide affordable housing in return for planning permission, will get worse. A spokesperson said that as most section 106 contributions were from residential developments, they expect the value would fall below £2 billion for the next few years as fewer schemes get started, and this is likely to force the government to fill the funding gap.

The government should buy homes from the elderly and allow them to move into sheltered accommodation, a parliamentary select committee has suggested. Money from the national affordable housing programme should go to buy up empty homes and those that are unoccupied and have been on the market for more than a year, the MPs said. The committee also insisted that the government continues to build more affordable homes and stick to its long-term house building targets.