The planning system is not the sole factor restricting land supply, holding back housing starts and forcing up prices, a report produced by the Royal Town Planning Institute argues.

The report, produced for the current Calcutt review of housing building delivery, has urged clearer and more consistent data from developers over land banks and planning permissions.

The RTPI document also called for the new National Housing and Planning Advice unit to publish on a regular and updated basis a breakdown of land held with planning permission for new homes by local authority area and developer and which includes information on the size and location of their strategic land banks.

The report has indicated that between them the top ten house builders have land banks with planning permission for close to 225,000 new homes.

The RTPI report highlighted other factors like the burgeoning buy-tolet market, the use of housing as a personal investment and as security for borrowing and the arguments over lack of infrastructure provision.

Evidence to tackle the myths about land supply and house prices

The RTPI launched their report at the their Annual Planning Convention in June. The report, ‘Opening up the Debate: Exploring housing land supply myths’, tackles issues of affordability and supply ‘head on’. Key new figures in the report show that house builders have banks of land with planning permission close to 14,000 acres, enough for 225,000 new homes. The report goes on to provide evidence on the relationship between land supply and house prices.

Key evidence from the report includes the following chart recording the likely figures of land with planning permission related to the top ten house builders in England: Kelvin MacDonald, RTPI Director of Policy and Research and joint author of the report said: “House builders and others need to stop blaming the planning system as the sole factor in restricting land supply. If we are to tackle the affordable housing crisis we need to move away from overly-simplistic views of demand and supply and look as well at the other factors that contribute to the crisis. This report provides solid evidence to kick off a much needed intelligent debate.”

The report makes five recommendations:

1)House builders should declare the amount of land they currently control with planning permission in each local authority area in a transparent and consistent way so that this figure can be used in the Annual Monitoring Report that forms part of the local development framework system. These can then be aggregated to form a regional data bank. It becomes very difficult to plan for future allocations of land or to understand the dynamics of the housing market in relation to land availability without such information.

2) The new National Housing and Planning Advice unit should publish, on a regularly updated basis:

• The amount of land held with planning permission broken down by local authority area and by developer
• The amount of land held in strategic land banks broken down by local authority area and by developer
• Number of houses completed in each year broken down by local authority area and by developer.

3) The RTPI will be looking to the Callcutt review to provide evidence to properly understand the blockages to housing delivery. In the interim, it is not helpful if any of the parties to this debate – whether they be house builders, the Government, business or environmental lobbies, issue partial and potentially misleading statements about the simple need for more land release. In doing so they can engender a culture of blame for the planning system and planners which merely stultifies wider debates about solutions.

4) Given that planning permission only lasts for three years, the Government should work closely with house builders and others to identify the blocks that exist within the industry and externally that could lead to those developers with a supply of land with permission much in excess of three years, not being able to achieve the potential of that land if permission lapses.

5) The Government, working with stakeholders, must review a range of different models to address the house building crisis, which will not improve under the status quo, including the need for a publicly funded house building programme to provide more and genuinely affordable homes.

Latest Government figures show over the past 12 months starts have declined by six per cent to 173,400 while completions have increased by just three per cent to 167,700. Updated Government predictions show 223,000 new households will be formed per year between 2004 – 2026.

NHBC SAYS BUILDING APPLICATIONS ARE UP ON LAST YEAR

Statistics released by NHBC reveal that the number of applications to build new homes across the UK increased by a small percentage year-on-year during the period from February to April 2007.

NHBC statistics show that 51,465 new homes were started in the three months from February to April - a four per cent increase on the same three month period a year ago (49,300). Of that total, 41,736 related to private sector activity (i.e. excluding housing associations), showing a two per cent decrease on the same period in 2006 (42,658). Housing association volumes increased by almost half in the three months to the end of April this year with starts totalling 9,729 - an increase of 46 per cent on the same period a year ago (6,642).

Imtiaz Farookhi, NHBC Chief Executive, says: “There was a modest increase in housebuilding activity during the three months to the end of April compared to the same period last year. The greatest regional increase in the number of housing starts for the period was seen in the South East where 8,129 new homes were started, 26 per cent higher than last year’s figure of 6,466.”

The number of homes completed showed little change year-on-year in the period from February 2007 to April 2007. New build completions totaled 43,329 in the three months to the end of April, less than one per cent decrease on the same period last year when 43,522 new homes were started. Additional figures for the three months from February 2007 to April 2007 show that the average number of new homes sold each day in the UK was 554, an increase of eight per cent on the same period a year ago (512).

£11.6 billion needed to resolve housing crisis

The lack of affordable housing is ruining the life chances of millions of people across the UK according to the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH). In the opening address at this year’s CIH UK Annual Conference and Exhibition in Harrogate, CIH President Paul Diggory has called on the Government to tackle the growing crisis by investing £11.6bn in housing in the Comprehensive Spending Review scheduled to be announced this autumn.

It is estimated that 1.6 million people are now on a waiting list for an affordable home and over 100,000 people are still living in temporary accommodation. In addition, key workers like nurses, teachers and police officers are able to take up employment in key parts of the country because of the housing shortage.

CIH and its partners want Government to commit to building 70,000 new affordable homes a year over the next three years. And with the Government’s own National Housing and Planning Advice Unit predicting 10-times-salary mortgages, CIH wants priority is given to those people struggling to get onto the housing ladder.

In his speech the CIH President also wanted housing policy to acknowledge the important issue that some people don’t want or can’t afford to buy. His comments were echoed in a recent CIH Member survey with 83% of respondents stating they thought that there was too much emphasis on homeownership at the expense of renting. He also called for more to be done to tackle climate change and the runaway buy-to-let market. CIH made a submission late last year to inform the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review in partnership with the Local Government Association, the National Federation of ALMOs, the NHF and Shelter. The submission identifies the need for funding to provide 210,000 new affordable homes over the 3 years, as well as money to increase the efforts already underway to prevent homelessness, to continue to provide resources for supporting people and to sustain the focus on market renewal.

Paul Diggory said: “All the key housing organisations in the country have joined forces to argue for public money to build more affordable homes to rent and own - and to improve the existing housing stock. “Stephen Timms and Gordon Brown have both made encouraging statements about the importance of affordable housing over recent weeks but, in the face of other competing Spending Review priorities we can’t afford to be complacent. We will continue to make a strong case for housing right up until the CSR07 announcement in the autumn”.

Planning a new lease of life for Bath Vale Works

Developers Richborough Estates have submitted a planning application for up to 130 homes on the site of a derelict former industrial site following almost three years of discussions with Congleton Borough Council and consultations with the local community.

The Birmingham-based company purchased the freehold of the former Bath Vale Works, plus the plant and machinery, from the receivers in 2005. The site had previously been owned and occupied by P&F Congleton, a metal pressing company which went into receivership in October 2004. The site consists of 157,000 sq ft of dilapidated industrial units and ancillary office space on a site of approximately 25 acres near Congleton town centre.

Paul Campbell, partner of Richborough Estates, said: “The buildings were bespoke to its former use and are uninhabitable.

“The location is no longer suitable for employment purposes and the general downturn in manufacturing activity in the UK and the poor quality of buildings at Bath Vale Works means re-development is paramount. The only viable use of the site is for residential.

“Plans for the site include environmental and ecological improvements, providing facilities for ramblers and horse riders using the Biddulph Valley Nature Walk, highway improvement works; and the opening up of old, and new, pedestrian rights of way.

“If our application is successful we’re also proposing various green initiatives such as harnessing electricity from the weir on site through the use of hydro power technology. Any development will also address the very significant anti-social and criminal activity which has been prevalent on and around the site over the last three years.”

Housing demand in Ashford set to rocket

The ancient market town of Ashford in Kent is set to become a major property hotspot as more and more commuters turn their backs on London in search of a better lifestyle, according to new research.

Knight Frank’s South East Residential Development Review 2007 says an increasing number of towns in the South East are witnessing a growth in London commuter residents as more workers trade proximity to work for more rural or coastal residences further afield.

The review picks out Ashford as being most likely to see the largest transformation over the next few years in terms of expansion, with the launch of high-speed domestic rail services from Ashford to London in 2009 sparking a boost in demand for housing in the town. The new service will slash journey times to London by almost half from 70 minutes to just 37, encouraging more commuters to migrate to the region.

“In 2003, as part of the Sustainable Communities Plan, Ashford was named as one of the Government’s four growth areas. As a result, the town is forecast to double in size and population by 2031, providing 31,000 new homes and 28,000 jobs over this period,” says the review.

Knight Frank’s findings show that house sales in Ashford rose by 49% just a year after it achieved Growth Area status. The growing lure of Ashford is supported by estate agents Your Move. Area sales director Jacqueline Davies said: “Ashford is gearing up for future expansion at an amazing rate of knots with a visible increase in demand for homes ahead of the arrival of high-speed trains to St Pancras in 2009. Buyers are acutely aware that the price of homes will continue to rise as we near the inauguration of this service.

“We are closely monitoring the large number of buyers entering the area who are snapping up property which is still attractive in price by comparison to other, more commutable towns, where prices are at least 20% higher and who enjoy commuting times of around half an hour. These include Sevenoaks and Guildford. These towns are the blueprint for Ashford’s future prosperity.”

Ashford is now the fastest growing town between London and continental Europe, and is realising its full potential thanks to a £650 million development programme. Abigail Raymond, acting managing director for Ashford’s Future, the agency overseeing the area’s growth, said: “With a journey time of 37 minutes to London in 2009, Ashford’s position in the geography of the South East will be radically changed.”

Developer appointed for Gloucester’s exemplar Residential Scheme

Bristol-based housebuilder, Edward Ware Homes Ltd, has been appointed to develop the Greyfriars site on Brunswick Road, Gloucester, bringing almost four hundred new homes to the city centre and setting new standards for the design and sustainability of city centre residential developments.

This is a highly significant urban regeneration project of national interest and the selection to appoint Edward Ware was made by national regeneration agency and site owner, English Partnerships, in collaboration with the city council, the Gloucester Heritage URC and the Housing Corporation.

The high quality scheme will create a new environmentally friendly neighbourhood, incorporating mixed-tenure homes and apartments, with 25 per cent set aside for affordable rent or shared ownership. A further 15 per cent of the market sale homes will be reserved for first-time buyers and controls will be put in place to limit the amount of buy-to-let properties. The site also includes 1,360 sq m of commercial space and proposals for a Neighbourhood Resource Centre along with public open spaces located adjacent to heritage areas. The scheme will achieve very high environmental standards in excess of Code Level 3 for Sustainable Homes, including a range of low carbon measures incorporating a biomass CHP system, solar heating, water saving fixtures and a sustainable approach to the use of materials.

Edward Ware Homes will also be required to maintain the property portfolio for a minimum of ten years, ensuring high levels of estate management and stewardship as well as maximising the return on the public sector investment in the site.

David Warburton, English Partnerships’ Director for South West England, says; “The decision to appoint Edward Ware Homes as our development partner was unanimous. Their submission met all of our quality standards and we were particularly impressed by their commitment to reducing carbon emissions across the entire site. We’re now ready to forge ahead with our plans for a high-quality neighbourhood that will bring considerable social and environmental benefits to the heart of Gloucester.”

A spokesman for Edward Ware homes echoed this sense of anticipation, saying, “We are delighted to have secured preferred developer status for this exciting opportunity in Gloucester where we are aiming to provide exemplar regeneration through high quality architecture and sustainable construction.”

Edward Ware Homes will lead the preparation of a detailed planning application to be submitted to Gloucester City Council later this year and it will also undertake the long-term stewardship of the scheme as part of the development agreement with English Partnerships, who have been advised by GVA Grimley throughout the developer selection proces..

New Eco Development: NAEA Members Dale Eddison awarded New Build

Dairy Meadows is a new development in the rolling countryside of West Marton, just outside Skipton, and right in the heart of our desirable Dales. The 22 houses have been designed to benefit from the use of eco-friendly materials and technology to include biomass low cost heating and hot water.

Steve Bailey of Landmarks (UK) Ltd., the developers and designers based in Ilkley, said “We have appointed Dale Eddison as they are perfectly placed to handle the sale of Dairy Meadows because of their grasp of modern day technologies used today, their own use of hi-tec selling techniques and their extreme quality service to customers.” Dale Eddison are joint agents with Harrison Boothman of Skipton. The development is already attracting families who want to live in the countryside, but in easy commuting distance to the motorway system.

Bill Dale, Partner at Dale Eddison, Ilkley, commented “This is just the type of property we are proud to have on our books, with its environmentally aware design and sympathetic relationship to the surrounding rural area.”

The award winning Yorkshire estate agent recently launched its pioneering TV channel on which selected property can be viewed from a professional, quality TV programme. The innovative software “FindaHomeTV” rewrites the traditional viewing scenario as homes and all types of property are brought to life through excellent broadcastable television, which includes a full round up of the amenities pertaining to each, and about its location. This is great news for the viewer as it feels as though they are actually within the house, with the ability to really experience what is on offer.