Really!? Gove!? and a sensible suggestion!? Inner city housing

[orangeleavesinautumn]

Gove appears to be making the first sensible suggestion of his career - more housing in inner cities, relaxing planning laws to allow this to happen.

This is desperately needed - we are in a vicious circle of needing parking because people can't live close to where they work, then people not being able to live close to where they work because so much space is needed for parking....

We need to get out of this, we need to put an end to the culture of driving in to work, and get rid of the inner city car parks, and put the land to better use.

We also need to get rid of the on street parking, and the awful concreting over of grass to park on front gardens, and start to scale back on the need and expectations of car ownership altogether.

More housing where it is actually needed is the first steps towards that - decades late, but better than nothing

It's a mix of issues

building more in the short term won't help private renters because foreign investors snap them up and rent out for high prices. They also make 2 bed flats into 4 bed HMO's and it needs stopping.

some new build flats are tiny especially with people working from home. You can often get a desk and everything you need for a bedroom in these bedrooms.

Also, I think we need to think about the impacts of building near busy roads and highly polluted areas because it has health impacts.

I think you're being very naive, you're seriously suggesting that people should be dependent on public transport?

Why is that naive?

I'm in my 50s, I don't even know how to drive. Somehow I survived!

Obviously not every place has good public transport and not everyone can take it. But there is no reason why half the households in London need to have a car. There's no reason why we need so many huge SUVs driving in the city. We need to normalise not having a car and improve public transport more and more, everywhere.

I must say I agree with this. I'd love a bigger living space of course, but ultimately it's not necessary is it?

It absolutely can be the same though. Fire regulations are part of planning laws.

Agree with slight majority yabu

I’m glad to hear someone say not build over green spaces. We need those

Of course relaxing planning laws doesn't mean relaxing ALL planning laws. They won't be relaxing the Fire Safety Regulations, it will be more about the hoops you have to jump through for planning permissions, allowing changes of use etc just like they did for extensions and permitted development rules.

@CornishGem1975 which planning requirements specifically do you think need to be changed or abolished then?

I'm not saying any do!

So we house people but where will they work? I live in a town with zero local jobs unless you want to voulenteer in a charity shop your options are sainsbury's (out of town no bus stop) tescos (edge of town by a bus stop) morrisons (edge of town no bus stop) or aldi (in-between two towns with a bus stop) HOWEVER buses cost a fucking fortune and the prices are going up again plus they stop running at 6pm so you cannot "work locally" and get to work AND BACK on a bus we also have a train station which is well used (unless they are striking) by people commuting OUT of town for work its not exactly central or easy to get to but it does have a car park

Basically we need to redesign the UK from scratch or stop implementing policies that assume your in London with good transport systems

Trying to get the population to stop using cars is Unreasonable our A&E is 45 minutes away (because our local one ws shut by the government) we have no local ambulance station and a taxi is out of financial reach for most the town should we just die? Or should we be allowed access to a car? and yes we were promised public transport to the hospital when they removed ours this promised transport lasted a year and has now stopped so.....you need a car

This policy announcement is bullshit. They want to cram people into shit city centre housing with reduced planning laws.

It's bollocks.

And people are right to reference Grenfell.

Families don't want to live in tiny flat in city centres. The shortage is family housing.

That's really interesting. I live in a town on the edge of a Northern city. We're crying out for smaller homes for downsizers and for people starting out on the property ladder. But the only thing developers are prepared to build are 5 bed "executive homes" with rural outlook.

Plenty of planning permissions have been given, but the pace of building is abysmal. Developers admit that they only build what they can sell. so they get permission for large areas of 5 bed homes and then release them at a trickle to maintain profits.

The low rate of housebuilding can't be put solely at the door of "Nymbies".

I think you will be in favour of relaxing planning laws until absolute monstrosities are built, your property is overlooked by a block of flats and all the flats are glorified rabbit hutches. And the properties are bought up by investors who let them on AST , not owner occupiers or social housing. And if there's no out side space for families to actually be outside their rabbit hutches and social issues arise.

We live in a flat, we don’t hear anything from our neighbours above or below. It isn’t lifestyle thats the issue, its lax planning laws meaning sufficient soundproofing isn’t required when homes are built/buildings adapted to residential dwellings.

Good points here

So where would all the asylum seekers who have had their claims processed and become refugees now live? They then have exactly the same rights to benefits and social housing.Without huge deposits private housing is mostly out of reach.

@loislovesstewie A proportion of claims are rejected.

The person who noted non-resident overseas purchasing (aka spending ill gotten gains) has a point too.

My son looked at a 2 bed flat bed build
the second “Bedrooom” you could fit a single bed but no wardrobe / or other bedroom furniture
maybe a small side chest of drawers

my other half has an ex council flat that he bought and rents out
both the bedrooms are huge easily fit a kingsize bed wardrobes and chest of drawers and have plenty of floor space left

I realise that, once a person becomes a refugee , i.e they area given leave to remain they are then given notice to leave the accommodation provided under the provisions of the asylum rules. Where do they then go? They can present as homeless as they have that right, if they are successful in that application then the L/A might house them, they might be offered help with a deposit to rent privately. But tinkering around with small amounts of house building isn't solving the issue of the huge shortfall in accommodation, and Gove's plans won't do that.

I largely agree with Gove's suggestions but it's only part of the solution. We need to stop overseas investors hoovering up properties. We need to introduce heavy penalties for properties that are left empty. We need heavy taxes on people with multiple homes, such as a relative of mine who has three houses she flits between (plus two others that she rents out). We need to limit the number of air bnb type places. We need to start building the type of homes that people actually want.

Gove has had some utterly stinking ideas.

He also has consistently surprisingly had good ones too. He was surprisingly well regarded whilst at DEFRA.

Education and Brexit are his two really big gaffs though.

Would it be possible for these new builds to come with a ban on "buy to let" mortgages?

I don't disagree with Gove here, but it's just fiddling round the edges. I can't see this government, or labour either, making the bigger changes that will make a bigger difference. I hope they bring back regional planning though.

Secondly, ending the requirement it seems for all small scale city/town development (20 or fewer dwellings) to include retail or commercial property.

I didn't know that was a thing, but it explains why a new development of flats near me has 2 retail units on the ground floor, one of which has been empty for over a year.

There have been a few developments where commercial property has been converted into flats here, and in a bigger town a few miles away. A former colleague now lives in a flat where she used to work when it was offices.

If the offices are no longer required, it seems like an excellent idea to me.

The UK birth rate is already reduced.
So why should people stop having children.
In my immediate family, siblings etc. We aren’t replacing ourselves.
Also I don’t want to live in a flat, it’s bad enough having neighbours. Don’t want another family etc above me. Or buying in and having to pay lease and expensive service charge.