House building is out of control

[Caterpillarsleftfoot]

Every where I turn at the moment the countryside is being turned into housing developments. If we carry on like this our habitats and green spaces will be decimated. Not to mention the flood risks. Also our beautiful rural way of life that we associate England with will be lost.

There is no way we need this many new developments. The latest one I saw is on the edge of a beautiful historical town in the countryside in a neighbouring county.

We need flats for council properties to save space and fewer air BnB properties.

Too true!

Too many people, houses too big, not enough food growing paddocks nor bird and animal habitats, not enough water, power etc.
Curb immigration, build smaller, better insulated houses and heavily tax empty houses.

But this is already happening- all over the country. (England at least).

Whole new villages. Schools, doctors, hospital, police, ambulance and fire all struggling under the strain.

Net migration needs to be dramatically reduced.

Yes to all of this.

Maybe we should:

1. Stop families breaking up and therefore splitting families over multiple different properties
2. Make it mandatory for people with two many bedrooms to move and free them up for larger families
3. Bring back workhouse for single mothers
4. Build more.properties to match demand

My town in the Midlands is so bizarre they have knocked down unused buildings a few years ago and are leaving it to rot they are also now building flats on a car park instead of the unused land

Old people need to downsize, otherwise there's nowhere for young families to live. Somewhere along the way, people developed an expectation that they'd build wealth through property and then sit on it until they die!

People have a right to live in the properties they own, it is very ageist to have this attitude. Immigration running at 745,000 per year is the problem, not only with housing, but schools, doctors, traffic on the roads, hospitals, destruction of our countryside.

@AussiUnHomme how do you propose to "stop people splitting up"? My mum desperately wanted to leave my cheating dad decades ago but literally couldn't because financial support for a single mum back then just wasn't there. They've trundled on miserably but only taking up one house so that's ok? I don't disagree that split families adds to the problem of housing shortages but I don't think the answer is forced togetherness 🙄

@AussiUnHomme I've just seen your workhouse idea....sorry, i'll assume your post was ironic.

But then you need to move jobs there too! The reason for over population in the SE is that the jobs have been centralised there and people have had to relocate for employment.

There are no bungalows for old people to move to. They don't build them anymore!

Agreed. Whilst so many derelict factories and town centres lie undeveloped.

@TodayInahurry - the facts do not bear out this argument. It's simply a straw man that politicians use to keep extending the gap between the rich and the poor in this country.

@Kazzyhoward - that's is true in some areas for sure!

are you currently living in a precarious tenancy, OP, or homeless? Do you live in the countryside?

Actually we do need lots more housing. Huge rise in single occupied housing - driven by family breakups ( so favoured by MN members yelling 'divorce him or leave him' for relatively minor infractions by DH/DP) and the elderly being reluctant to downsize, especially to sheltered housing due to unclear financial implications such as high service fees. On top of that an ever increasing population. Half a million net migration requires a lot more housing. Add to that the huge outcry over the bedroom tax which was supposed to encourage people to move to smaller homes but failed. If you have a spare room, don't complain about modern housing, nor if you support uncontrolled immigration, nor if your house is less than 50 years old because lots of people probably complained about that development too. Honestly, if you don't like where you live, move, preferably to Canada!

Honestly, if you don't like where you live, move, preferably to Canada!

I really don't recommend moving to Canada for anyone who doesn't want to spend a lot of money on housing!

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadas-surging-cost-living-fuels-reverse-immigration-2023-12-09/

(You could try Japan. Tokyo's actually not too bad for housing these days....)

The UK needs to deal with the service charge/leasehold issue and promote senior-friendly apartments. There is no space to build bungalows all over the place - they are a really wasteful use of land.

Some of the derelict town centre locations are left undeveloped because big house builders are not interested and there isn't too expensive for the small ones.
Example: One bedroom flat in west midland will cost anywhere from £130-£160k: The cost of building it now with absolute minimum will not be less then £100k. At absolute minimum you need to have 30% markup (over 2 years interest will eat 10-15%). There are hundreds of risk factors you need to consider which can take your building cost through the roof.

And the plot how much does it cost? I would say the plot would need to be virtually free for any builder to even consider developing on it.
The reality is very deferent isn't the South where the house prices are higher.
(Me and my husband used to be a small family builders who left this industry).

@Kokeshi123 what does "dealing with service charge issues" mean? Regardless of the ownership structure, blocks of flats need to be maintained and the service charge funds that.

Leaseholders have the right to apply for right to manage if they dislike their managing agents.

Share of freehold properties give more control but (as you are essentially freeholder and leaseholder) you do need to be prepared to be involved in management of the building.

The biggest issue with flats is often people who buy them don't understand what they have bought.

I'm an old person, I've moved into a flat after living in houses (during my earlier family life) and it's fine. Bungalows are usually built on a larger plot of land so not a good way to house people. Also I live in an area where there are no bungalows, for just this reason, and wouldn't want to move to somewhere away from the city simply to live in one.
I can't understand why people are unwilling to live in flats, they're a normal way to live in towns in much of Europe.

I totally agree, but there will always have to be a service charge. Older people in particular are not interested/able to maintain the outside of these properties.

Exactly. Bungalow estates tend to be strung out on the outskirts of cities because of the all the space they need. This then causes real issues if and when the couple loses the ability to drive, as these are areas where public transport is just never going to be a good solution. I have a couple of friends a bit older than me whose parents moved moved to bungalows in seaside/out-of-town areas, and now they are in a pickle because they can't drive safely any more. They can't manage the gardens any more either, and bungalows tend to have these big gardens. I think it's better to have a balcony, a shared garden and be in walking distance of public transport and shops etc.

I totally agree, but there will always have to be a service charge. Older people in particular are not interested/able to maintain the outside of these properties.

Sure - I just mean some measures could be taken to ensure charges do not become exploitative. At the end of the day, if an elderly person isn't able to maintain their property, then services charges that are levied in order to cover such work would seem to be a reasonable and necessary use of money - if such a person decides to go to a bungalow "to save on service charges," they will presumably just join the ranks of older people who "can't cope" and their neighbors and adult children end up in difficulties trying to help tem.

I agree, but it won’t happen. We were recently under threat of having a bit of our lovely riverbank destroyed so they could build a vent shaft for HS2. There are three golf courses in the area, one of which was clearly a better location. We asked one of the engineers why they weren’t considering it, and he said there was no point because every single time they had proposed building on or through a golf course, it had been thrown out. And remember, there were plenty of compulsory purchases on existing homes.