ROOF Blog

Housing and planning minister John Healey has published research claiming that inappropriate building on back gardens is not a widespread, national problem and is often linked to councils’ failure to have local policies in place. He told the small minority of councils who reported issues in ‘hot spot’ areas that the power to act is already in their own hands if they establish clear, local policies. The intensive, countrywide review by Kingston University was commissioned last year to assess the nature and extent of the issue across the country and how it could be tackled. Garden grabbing can affect the character of an area if very different properties are built alongside family homes. The research concluded that although the issue is not a widespread national problem, a minority of councils in London, the South East and West Midlands had reported an impact in their areas.

Britain is unlikely to return quickly to the peak rate of housebuilding during the boom of the past decade, the chief executive of Taylor Wimpey has said. Despite reporting a rise in demand for new homes that was better than expected - running at nearly a third higher than the dark days at the end of 2008 - Peter Redfern said that planning requirements would hold back a wholesale recovery in building volumes. Mr Redfern said: ‘At the peak, the industry in the UK was building 170,000 units. That has halved and last year the industry completed around 85,000 to 90,000 units. It will be a very long time before we get back to those high volumes because of the constraints on land availability and the planning system.’

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has shortlisted 265 bids totalling nearly £550m in round two of its Kickstart housing delivery programme.

Shortlisted bidders include a mix of RSLs along with national and local developers aiming to unlock up to 22,000 homes across the country.

Bidding opened in September with the criteria that eligible schemes should be housing-led with a minimum of 50 homes (fewer in rural areas or if the scheme delivers to Code for Sustainable Homes Level 5 or 6) and that sites should have detailed planning consent in place or the ability to achieve this by the end of March 2010.

Sir Bob Kerslake, HCA chief executive, said: ‘Kickstart continues to be a crucial component in maintaining momentum in the house building industry.’

A due diligence process will now follow, which will look in detail at value for money, design, financial viability and risk, as well as an assessment of quick delivery.

Housebuilders and construction workers have begun a campaign to fight off a new tax crackdown on the building trade, which the industry claims will stifle the sector’s recovery and make it difficult to hit government housing targets.

The Home Builders Federation and the Federation of Master Builders will launch its Stop the Unfair Building Tax campaign today to try to persuade the government to rethink proposals that the industry says will push more workers into the black market.

The Government wants to stamp out false self-employed status in the building industry, which it says costs the Exchequer £350 million a year.

It proposes to collect tax and national insurance contributions from an estimated 300,000 workers who claim self-employed status.

Workers will be deemed employees unless they supply their own materials and equipment, or other people’s labour as well as their own.

Construction will start on a third fewer social homes next year, in a vivid sign of wider impending restraints on government spending.

The news comes as the country’s property quango the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) reveals that the value of its development assets has plunged £1.1bn as a result of the housing crash.

But this financial fillip will only have a temporary impact, according to targets set by the HCA. Overall completions will continue to rise from a total of 55,625 this year to 61,500 next year, partly as a result of the government’s injection of money.

But housing starts will drop away next year, suggesting that there will be fewer completions in the coming years.

Only 29,900 grant-funded housing starts are scheduled for 2010-11, a drop of 34 per cent from the 45,500 target for the current financial year.

Of those, the number of social rented homes built under the National Affordable Housing Programme will halve from 30,389 in 2008-09 to 14,500 next year.