Why are we building so many homes?

[Skunkaniseed]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g518le0r5o

This article makes a number of good points. Why are we focused on building when there is a glut of empty homes that would meet the need?

It's desperate. The developers are coming for and getting permission to concrete over every bit of green space we have. Round pur way our beautiful green valley will disappear soon under 400 homes despite being an area of ancient woodland. The developers want the fields adjacent to that and also about a mile away where a 500 house development has been fought off for now
The GP surgeries and schools are already oversubscribed and cannot support this level of development
It's a real massive threat .

I didn’t say it predates immigration as a concept, that it predates the immigration you’re referring to.

can you post your simple maths?

I’ll just say again, the housing shortage is down to lack of house building - this includes not replacing lost stock as well as not building for population growth and changes in the way we live ie more people living alone. Immigration is a small (maybe negligible at present) factor in this.

Well labour have pledged to build 1.5 million homes over this parliament. Net migration last 2 years averaged 700, 000 pa. If net migration was so 500k then by the end of the parliament we are a million homes short.

I fail to see how immigration does not effect housing...do we assume they will live in tents

Location Location Location

Our town is rapidly expanding, it is turning into an commuter town. Just over an hour on the train to one of the big cities.

House prices are still cheap compared to the next one that's closer with 45min.
There is as much as 60-70k difference, although the gap is slowly closing.

There are no empty homes around here, schools and hospitals are bursting and forget about getting into a dentist. The majority of jobs are in warehouseing and other nmw jobs that won't give locals a foot on the housing ladder. We need infrastructure with the new homes. But that's not on the mind of the town planning committee. We have a population of 54.5k as of 2021 and no hospital and only 2 medium sized secondary schools (46k in 2001 for comparison)

The vast majority of large new build estates are “designed” by house builder developers not architects, they are designed purely on economics nothing more.

Because a lot of empty homes are in the wrong places. I.e. run down towns with little/no employment. Such areas are made worse because they're often a dumping ground for benefit claimants, refugees or prison releases. Hence the state of many seaside resorts who got "undesirables" parachuted in to live in barely habitable run down boarding houses!

Because a lot of empty homes simply aren't fit for human habitation under current legislation. Either because they're delapidated, or they're not large enough, contain asbestos, stairs too steep, etc. That's certainly the reason for lots of "empty" flats above High Street shops remaining derelict, empty etc - councils won't give planning permission for "conversion" due to steep/narrow stair cases or lack of an escape route, etc.

Is this a good time to talk about older people in too big houses for their needs?
Almost 90% of people age 65+ reside in a home with 2+ spare bedrooms.

I am in the guilty camp, btw. I have 2 spare bedrooms because when I bought I thought I'd be housing 1-2 of my young adult kids and 3 cats. Circumstances suddenly changed about their best housing options but the situation could suddenly change again, too.

And because they sell them for the required profit margin, they have no reason to do anything differently.

if you have a very generous budget, there are many examples of innovative and beautiful new builds. With house prices and wages as they are, the majority of house buyers won’t be able to afford this luxury when buying new

So you both concede my point that these houses are absolutely awful. 😁

Awful they are building on green fields. It just doesn't tally with carbon neutral and will affect flooding and water run off. Government keeps banging on about the environment but their policies make it worse for everyone

It is horrendous

It honestly perplexes me when people bleat about empty homes being brought into Government stock, and made available to those in need. Do people honestly think it’s fair that the government can just do a ‘house grab’ and just remove ownership from someone who has actually paid for and owns the house? There’s many reasons a home is empty. There’s one round the corner from us which is a probate home, and is still empty two years after the owner died. Maybe the government could focus on why homes are empty, and get more staff in to deal with probate applications, and give a kick up the arses of incompetent solicitors who drag processes out.

Are there really enough one bedroom properties to accommodate all the singletons and couples? Most one bedroomed properties are small terraced properties with very tiny/or no gardens. And bearing in mind that most couples are now only having one or two children, who’s going to occupy all the four and five bedroomed homes in the decades to come? It’s mad to start allocating properties to fit each family’s sleeping circumstances. The shortage is for those in social housing and private rentals. Your elderly gran vacating her four bedroomed home in Hampshire isn’t going to help people in need. It will just be bought up by a professional family with children relocating from the city.

Even worse, in our area they knocked down 100s of serviceable homes under Housing Market Renewal Initiative never rebuilt so destroyed communities, land sits empty but the council is allowing developers to snatch the green fields. It's an absolute scandal
And the deer, the badgers, the wildlife?
Driven out of their habitats which have been destroyed

I am in the guilty camp, btw. I have 2 spare bedrooms because when I bought I thought I'd be housing 1-2 of my young adult kids and 3 cats.

You're not "in the guilty camp". You're not guilty of anything. You're entitled to live where you choose (and can afford). Take no notice of those pushing the "people over 50 are responsible for all that is wrong with this country" narrative.

There's over 10k on the council/social housing waiting list in my area . Problem is alot of new builds are not for social housing. People are waiting years in temporary accommodation to be housed

That’s exactly why more must be built

Is this a good time to talk about older people in too big houses for their needs?
Almost 90% of people age 65+ reside in a home with 2+ spare bedrooms.

Are we including wealthy people in this argument? say for example a couple who are aged 60 plus who own a huge detached mansion set in several acres, should they be forced to downsize because their house is under occupied (and probably always was even with children as the house is so big) or does this only apply to normal older people who have worked their way up the property ladder to achieve the average size ‘family’ home? It really irritates me that it’s ’normal’ people who are expected to not live in the house they have worked and paid for yet the wealthy seem exempt from this expectation, what about celebrities? the landed gentry etc? Should they all move into a 2 bed semi as that’s all they need?

There is constant building in London and it's horrible - not even as nice as brutalism. Many of it is for overseas students, others are completely unaffordable and are bought by the wealthy as Air BnB's (see the multiple high rises around Wembley) and overseas corporations (huge areas left empty). There is also a lack of retirement housing as many single, divorced, widowed Londoners are living in 3/4 bed properties but there's nowhere to go. We want to stay in London for our families, GP's, hospitals, social life and transport.
There are lots of empty non residential properties around Central London too - they could be developed.

We need the state to start building again

Absolutely this.

😂 some people genuinely love new build estates though. For example, I adore- adore- Brutalism, which you mentioned as another example 😂 takes all sorts to populate the country!

Exactly

we’re on a high water table areas - You can’t even get out of the village when it rains now thanks to a new development. Will take up to an extra hour to reach the hospital should we need it on a rainy day…

my neighbour’s kitchen is covered in black mould because of the new lack of drainage …

i appreciate people need homes but no one in their right mind is going to buy a house you can’t leave when in rains so I doubt they’ll even get sold once people realize! We absolutely need more social housing but I lthink it would actively unethical to put someone already financially struggling in mouldy house where they couldn’t even get to work or medical care come winter.

Your elderly gran vacating her four bedroomed home in Hampshire isn’t going to help people in need. It will just be bought up by a professional family with children relocating from the city.

Who will take property vacated by the city couple?

And who will take the property vacated down the chain and down the chain...

I thought all the pensioners were in dire financial straits not living in huge mansions on acres of land. That's why so many pensioners were so peeved about losing their £300 WFA.

Anyway, it can't help the housing crisis that 68% of properties are under-occupied ! Suppose the % of persons age 65+ with at least two Spare bedrooms dropped from 90% to just 45%. So plenty of pensioners still on their landed estates, and plenty still with ONE spare bedroom. Just not so many with 2 (or 3 or 4 or...n) spare bedrooms.

Rubbish. If we did this the whole of the south east would be concreted over in 20 years.