I am co signing these amendments to seek a change to the Levelling Up Bill. I want a substantial decline in the numbers of migrants coming to the UK so we can offer those that come decent homes and jobs without causing a crisis in provision. The large numbers coming are the main cause of having to build too many homes in places like Wokingham, when we should be helping people already settled here into the jobs available. Slower growth in population is many people’s preferred environmental policy, cutting pressure on farmland and greenfields, lowering CO 2 output, reducing demand for water and energyĀ and reducing tensions on public services.
NC21:
āProhibition of mandatory targets and abolition of five-year land supply rule
(1) Any housebuilding target for local planning authorities inā
(a) the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF),
(b) regulations made under any enactment, or
(c) any planning policy document may only be advisory and not mandatory.
(2) Accordingly, such targets should not be taken into account in determining planning applications.
(3) The NPPF must not impose an obligation on local planning authorities to ensure that sufficient housing development sites are available over five years or any other given period.ā
NC24
āRequirements of the National Planning Policy Framework
- The Secretary of State must ensure that the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is in accordance with subsections (2) to (6).
(2) The NPPF must not contain a presumption in favour of sustainable development including where there are no relevant development plan policies, or such policies are out-of-date.
- The NPPF must provide for the right for persons to object to individual planning applications.
(4) The NPPF must provide that the Planning Inspectorate may only recommend that local plans not be adopted ifā
(a) the consequences of that local plan would be detrimental to the objectives of such plans, and
(b) that local plan is markedly and verifiably atypical in comparison to other such plans.
(5) The NPPF must permit local planning authorities to impose bans on greenfield development in their areas, other than in exceptional circumstances, whereā
(a) greenfield areas make a marked contribution to the local economy through leisure or tourism, and
(b) where sufficient brownfield land is likely to be available to meet housing needs identified in neighbourhood and local plans.
(6) The NPPF must include specific measures designed to support the creation of additional retirement homes, sheltered accommodation for the elderly and facilities for care homes.
(7) This section comes into force at the end of the period of six months beginning on the day on which this Act is passed.ā
NC6
Clause 83, page 91, line 30, leave out ānational development management policyā and insert ādevelopment planā
November 28, 2022
Good morning.
UK Houses for UK citizens.
I said this before here and I will say it again. Make it illegal to sell houses under Ā£500K to foreign citizens. That will go some way to cut demand for affordable homes. Foreigners can rent.
November 28, 2022
Why not all real property – as I think Denmark do?
November 28, 2022
Agreed on all residential property. Commercial property is a different question. Also no residential property to be owned by companies.
November 28, 2022
Lyme,
Both are considered in large developments. Commercial property attracts a different rate of CIL.
Do not forget the Tory govt. made a lot of farming unprofitable ie milk farming because of EU cap. The lying Tory govt has not helped them as promised after Brexit. We recently had the rewilding crap spouted by them. So many sell their land for building. Some of whom will have wangled their way on parish and local councils, particularly executive teams, to make sure the right decision is made. They will make sure the decision they want is put through the planning officer to find the answers for them.
The appeal process against planning is a fixed nonsense as well.
November 28, 2022
martin & lynn – – good points. Yes lets do it ! Once in Law allow 1 year to sell existing property.
A small crash in prices (especially in Chelsea – my heart bleeds) is overdue.
November 28, 2022
Why and why on earth not a company what does this ban achieve? What does if matter if you rent your flat/house off a company or a person/persons, or local government or off a charitable trust like the National Trust? What if it is a shop with flats above (does one then have to spit the ownership) and have two mortgages. Rather impractical and economically very damaging. Another parasitic job creation scheme.
November 28, 2022
JR, off topic, suggest you read Ewan Stewartās article in Con Woman on budget outcome relying on OBR forecast. I think it supports your direction of thinking and most of those on this site that the budget will relatively and absolutely destroy growth.
November 28, 2022
It certainly will, much of the money, investment and hard workers will leave, many more will choose to work less or not at all. Others will go for the black economy and a bit of bartering.
Even if you earn the average wage of Ā£30,000 then after tax, NI, commuting, student loan interest, car tax, TV tax, council tax, car parking, ULEZ, congestion tax… you will have often have nothing left to pay your modest rent/mortgage, food, gas, electricity, prescriptions, dental charges, insurance, car repairs, water rates, the odd repairs… Better off on the dole with a bit of bartering so many will indeed choose this given the system that pertains. Junior doctors are on even less than this and have even more student interest and student debt to repay. Will they be expected to eat the hospital food leftovers perhaps to make end meet? Is it any wonder 25% of junion doctors leave within one year and only 50% stay on long term – what a waste of expensive training. Meanwhile thousand of NHS managers paid over Ā£100,000.
November 28, 2022
UK used to say we couldn’t do as Denmark do because of EU rules, but the last time I looked, Denmark was a member of the EU.
As with controlling immigration, if the government wanted to do it they would do it, but they don’t want to.
November 28, 2022
I hope your going to retain the ban on onshore wind.
I’ve never seen anything so useless.
Taxing gas and oil companies at 75% will accelerate our destiny to net zero as the population freeze to death but that’s the idea isn’t it.
Gove is behaving in his usual snake like fashion.
November 28, 2022
On the subject of onshore windfarms today the 11,700 we already have are only generating 1.03gw so why does the government want to double down on useless technologies.
We are Importing from Holland and Norway as well as having 1.5gw of coal.
If the imports stop as well they might, we are royally screwed.
November 28, 2022
As of 4.30pm wind was generating 0.4gw. National grid saying we may have power cut tonight due to technical problems in France. You won’t get away with that.
November 28, 2022
Remember that it was the Tory government that gave us net-zero and wind-turbines ….and by the back door using subterfuge and spin to make it law
November 28, 2022
Ian. I see that onshore wind in England is going to be allowed apparently only with the local community’s consent. Let’s hope they don’t take a leaf out of Sturgeon’s book and overuled the local councils and residents who all voted against them. Some windfarms have been extended and the height of turbines increased dramatically bringing misery to many. Councils have spent a fortune going to a judicial review only to find the Scottish government give consent.
November 28, 2022
@ Mark B – English law not so long ago used to provide that foreigners could not own a British ship – so they did what many British people did anyway and formed a U.K. limited company to take ownership, thereby not only complying with the law but also enjoying limited liability.
Your scheme may well be undermined by various work-around stratagems, adding complexity and distortions to the market to the ultimate benefit of no-one other than the professional advisors whose fees would doubtless be ample.
November 28, 2022
Yes there will always be loopholes. Just look at all the immigration llaws we have. Not designed to manage immigration, but to accelerate it. But we have to start somewhere and start to put our own people first.
November 28, 2022
The Tory’s mass legal and illegal immigration policy has made them irrelevant. As has their highest taxation ever, payments to every foreign cause. Surrender to EU, NI, fishing. They are toast. Who on Earth would trust or vote for them again? Fool me once etc. Time for Reform.
November 28, 2022
Farming and producing food should be at the top of priority list as a national security issue above housing for mass immigration. Particularly as France was hostile and stopped food lorries during covid. We all saw them stacked up at Dover unless Johnson caved, which he did, again.
A small number of papers picked up on the scandal of a nationalised company in Spain getting awarded contracts by useless Wallace to build UK warships at a time of self imposed recession by Sunak and Hunt! This is a national security issue where the govt is, once more, dereliction in duty to the nation.
November 28, 2022
Yesterday a- tracy informed us that youngsters can and do buy affordable houses in her area.
Maybe publicising areas where accommodation is not a big problem might be a simple and inexpensive way to start to address the issue. I was aware of youngsters choosing to avoid London when they start out in their careers.
I donāt believe in Sir Johnās āBuild it and they will comeā idea of estates of executive houses to reinvigorate areas.
November 28, 2022
Problem is youāve got all the highly paid jobs Peter and weāve got all the low cost houses, because itās half an hours drive anywhere to work, play with no decent trams, dlrā s entertainment, they come here because itās cheap but for City folk its like being buried alive.
November 28, 2022
Peter – Fine. But rich areas won’t have doctors, nurses, brickies, plumbers…
November 28, 2022
It is the Channel Island principle and would work well in the coastal areas of Devon and Cornwall, the Lake District, and anywhere else that the desire for second homes has driven the indigenous population away.
November 28, 2022
Do we offer our indigenous people decent homes and jobs?
How about the homeless dying on our streets at the moment?
Are there even enough bricks and tiles to build the houses for all comers?
We see that if there is the political will luxury hotel accommodation can be magicked out of thin air.
But not for everyone!
Utterly astounding.
November 28, 2022
Yes, I read there are an estimated 2,500 former servicemen living rough on the streets. How can we tolerate that but put illegals in nice warm hostels with free food?
Sir J, please bring this up.
November 28, 2022
The NPPF could have a provision for councils to prioritise servicemen or local people ahead of foreigners being parachuted into affordable and social housing.
November 28, 2022
I second that proposal Peter. Charity should always begin at home!
November 28, 2022
Sec 106 clauses ought to be mandatory for house building so local people are prioritised over immigrants.
November 28, 2022
We are all in it together as they like to say. You earn Ā£30,000 and we take about half of it off you in tax, NI, council tax, student loan interest, ULEZ charges, road, petrol and tv taxes… but if you arrive by boat in Dover you get about 60,000 PA in hotels and other benefits PA with no taxes lawyers, doctors and dentists thrown in too.
November 28, 2022
Its just crazy
November 28, 2022
No question of heat or eat if your a channel invader.
Only a cost of living crisis for the tax paying indigenous population.
Tories in power over 12 years and the British population has been screwed over.
November 28, 2022
Its unbelievable the divergence between the politician and the people over 12 years ā¦either the whole population or the politicians are on drugs ā¦or maybe both
November 28, 2022
At present Planning Authorities can impose a condition on permits that development be begun within a time span. That is easily met, and has the effect of preserving the permit indefinitely, enabling Land Banking..
However, they cannot impose a completion-without-good-cause time limit.
This needs to change.
It won’t under the Tories, however.
November 28, 2022
MPs represent the local people living in their own environment. The quality level they maintain and develop should be within their own control. Bulldozer-Power should be restricted to remedying what is wrong, not steamrolling over fine places to squeeze in increasing levels of flats.
Keir Starmer proposes a change to Levelling-Up. Removing charity status from school fees causes many who pay privately to occupy State places. That increases the burden on the State by reducing hard-working strivers down to his level. Perhaps his home could be converted to flats, with 6 storeys of poor folk having to live above, tolerating him as a neighbour in the basement.
November 28, 2022
Absolutely right, lad. Land banking is the elephant in the room in far too much discussion of planning policy.
November 28, 2022
yep ….start within say 2 years or Permission rescinded, complete within 4 or else!
November 28, 2022
@Cuibono +1 Agreed and it is a Government that is not in control but being controlled
November 28, 2022
As a taxpayer I want my free 4* Hotel of choosing. Where do I apply or should I get a dingy in Dover and get picked up by the RNLI/Border Farce, pretend to speak Pidgeon and get free everything for years?
November 28, 2022
Spot on.
November 28, 2022
Qu: Do the hotels need change of use planning permission to house illegal immigrants. They are not acting as hotels ie temporary accommodation for ordinary citizens but hostels for long stay open ended stays for criminals. Is the insurance adequate or ought to be changed? After all multi occupancy properties need to be cited as such.
November 28, 2022
I believe that some local councils have taken the home office to court over that very subject
November 28, 2022
I find it amazing that compete strangers can be treated far better than our own people, by both government and charities.
November 28, 2022
Before being concerned with those coming it would be commendable to consider sorting out the existing problems. Just adding people to the lists just creates a one step forward, two back, firefighting approach to dealing with it. There will never be enough infrastructure to support all the extra properties needed. Governments have got to stop playing catch up.
November 28, 2022
From what Iāve seen planning and huge building projects are sorted out (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) at local level anyway and if there are objections the govt. just sweeps them away.
Who wants ādevelopmentā(aka destruction)?
Only government and builders.
November 28, 2022
The point is to give a local authority that does not want its locality swamped by excessive housing the power to stop that from happening. At present government planning inspectors can overrule them by enforcing housing targets set by Westminster. If the amendments can remove that weapon from their hands, good. I am delighted to see Sir John supporting this initiative.
November 28, 2022
Development aka Profiteering.
November 28, 2022
We need a complete ban on ALL immigration until we have housing for them (and us), NHS queues down, water and sewage working as they should do, and access to doctors, dentists and other essential health services. Only then, should you consider letting more in, but in my opinion we are already overpopulated but you will continue to mismanage everything and just throw more money at other countries and other nationalities. It is deliberate destruction of the UK.
With regard to the boat people, this is the height of stupidity and a great big insult to the taxpayer. You don’t know who they are, what illnesses they carry, their criminal or terrorist background, and many seem to think our young girls and boys exist got their ‘entertainment’. They are NOT refugees. They come from a safe country. The law (an ass) may say we have to treat them as refugees, but everyone knows they come to benefit Britain and once here they stay here, regardless of who they are and what crimes they commit. CHANGE THE LAW! You spend vast amounts of money on these boat people (there are far greater costs involved than mere accommodation) and you actually disadvantage the rest of the UK, but still you carry on causing more damage and hell to the electorate. How many disappear into the black market, or into a life of crime? Crime is also out of control in the UK, and costs us vast amounts of money and distress. This government has to go!
November 28, 2022
Shirley,
In 2003 I was at a meeting where govt service provider stated clearly that the govt.was aware the SE public services could not cope with the mass immigration and they had to be distributed across the country. 19 years on, 12 under Tories and the numbers are worse!! Do not forget May cut police by 20,000 knowing massive population I increase was their actual policy!!
Visas and the like can be planned, last year 1.2 million issued. So the 504,00 net figure based on an estimate survey is likely to be totally wrong. A bit the like the OBR forecasting only Hunt is stupid enough to follow it for the budget. OST numerate people would scrap OBR and bring BOE to heel.
November 28, 2022
Excellent post, very simple & very doable ā¦agree with every word
November 28, 2022
Before the usual flood of “it’s all the fault of nasty, selfish, rich boomers/NIMBYs” commences, may I point out that if the planning authorities insisted that new developments always contain housing suitable for the elderly, both in the forms of, perhaps, semi-detached bungalows and small blocks of apartments, several benefits would ensue.
The elderly would have more of a chance to live near their children, making it easier for inter-generational care to be given by families, and it would encourage pensioners to sell up their possibly larger homes and face the upheaval of moving from a familiar area to a completely new one.
November 28, 2022
Pensioners don’t always want to live in new housing estates with many young children making noise nearby.
November 28, 2022
Consultation for interested parties is written in. However, with the presumption to grant most would be unable to write a sensible reason for objecting. The best line of attack is to use the councils own infrastructure plan which normally shows totally inadequate infrastructure because Councils keep pleading for more money! Being unable/ incapable/ unwilling to budget can be used against councils planning permission. They also waste NHB and CIL which also ought to be cited against such plans. Also other public services like hospitals and police fail to respond to such plans. Water and waste emptied into rivers by water companies ought to be used to oppose plans to build. The EA consistently fails to give proper consideration to the environment on such issues such as water, waste and flooding.
However, corruption and vested interests so strong in councils the decision is already made whatever legitimate opposition is made. Socialist Tories created the current NFFP under Boles. NHB and CIL Colloquially known in newspapers as the Boles bung. The govt secretary minister has consistently failed to provide proper oversight, especially service provision for ghetto villages!
November 28, 2022
This is an issue when large estates are built. Not everyone wants to live as the powers that be seem to want us to live – e.g. thousands of dwellings, a range of property capacities & types, for a range of ages, range of incomes, range of tenures. I can think of at least one in my region where for years now the ‘plan’ is being contested & being fought against in order to try to secure a more sensible and sustainable outcome for the existing area, infrastructure considerations and green belt, in an already overcrowded, in every sense, part of the country.
Further, only a short while ago – per the BBCās 03/8/22 article āHelp house 10.000 Afghan refugees ā Minister tells councilsā ( & expecting an ongoing 500 arrivals each month ) Homes reported as already found for 7000 but in a letter seen by BBC at least another 2000 properties were required for a remaining 10.500 with more than 500 4-bedroom / larger houses needed to accommodate larger families. An ever expanding queue which satisfies nobody.
November 28, 2022
Yes, not too many bungalows being built in Wokingham these days :-}
November 28, 2022
but being built on to enlarge and make 2 storeys!
November 28, 2022
Very true MT, more money in it….
November 28, 2022
+1000
There is a failure in supply of small housing for older aged people.
Help to Buy is inflationary, whereas Help to Move (for single older people who may have left it too late) would be deflationary and make housing more affordable for the young, educated middle class people who are unable to afford to have children.
Our country is in a perverse state of wefare funded idiocracy, a reverse Darwinism which means that people who fail breed in far greater numbers than those who succeed.
The latest generation of idiots appear to have hit our streets and Tory Britain is starting to look like a mass hospital prison breakout.
The next general election is going to be fought against a backdrop of obvious and visible decline in our standard of living and social order.
Ministers have not got over their Covid power kick. Did we ever imagine a Tory Minister lecturing us on when we could use our heating ? At least we don’t have to put up with an ex Minister telling us to shop at Iceland ! For the first time I refused to watch I’m a Celebrity.
November 28, 2022
This is such an important issue John. Just this problem alone will be the downfall of the government unless it’s sorted out. The electorate are fed up seeing services that they pay for being cut and the availability of homes being given to people who in many cases shouldn’t be here. We don’t want our countryside wrecked and we want an end to anyone entering the country illegally. We are storing up problems for the future. My local city which is old and beautiful is one of the latest to be chosen to accommodate illegal immigrants and with the prospect of serious illnesses breaking out as in other venues it’s not a welcome choice and they are taking recourses from an already broken NHS here.
November 28, 2022
Shirley,
It is not possible to build enough houses to match Tory mass immigration policy.
Do not think for one moment the Tory govt. did not know. They deliberately and wilfully lied to the public. Social security numbers issued are known each year. Visas applications are planned, they can be denied. Where is the actual head count? Not estimates.
Teresa May knew when she cut the police numbers by 20,000. She claimed police numbers had nothing to do with crime rate. May and previous Tory govt knew they were not serious in cutting immigration. Two weeks before her election, she said she would never call, a terrorist incident happened and people would not accept police numbers had nothing to do with it. We read Abu Hamza deported from US back to UK, you might recall May could not deport him. She claimed ECHR prevented her and so it should be scrapped! Same for Johnson, same for Braverman. Our borders can only be controlled by govt if ECHR is scrapped. However it is linked to EU sell out agreement! Who in their right mind seeking independence for your country would sign up to that?
November 28, 2022
And once they arrive, Fedup, it is permanent. Forever. This isn’t some temporary crisis, your vicinity, as you knew it the day before is changed forever.
November 28, 2022
It was concluded on GB News tonight that the window to return is only 48 hours, after that theyāre lawyer up and than once lost in the system and hotels often married etc ā¦basically under this government or indeed labour, once feet dry, theyāre here forever
November 28, 2022
Don’t hold your breath. It’s planned. Some secret back room deal with the EU to take our share of the unwashed. I mean, they’ve had 12.5 years to sort it , but haven’t. No one is ever deported. They just put up our taxes to pay for their treacherous policy.
November 28, 2022
TA,
Do not forget the template in Holland to steal land from farmers to build on!!
November 28, 2022
I often wonder if we pay the French Ā£millions to escort them over here. The numbers do seem to increase dramatically every time we give the French money to ‘stop’ them! Who can trust what this government says? They excel in deceit, dishonesty and betrayal.
November 28, 2022
Agreed. The French Government pretends to stop them. The British Government pretends it wants to. The co-ordination of “rescues” when the criminal migrants are still in French waters confirms that it’s a deliberate programme of “taking our fair share.”
November 29, 2022
Stop calling these young men ‘unwashed’ they are not! They are quite simply illegal economic migrants and probably sprinkled with criminals. Where are the real suffering refugees we should try to help, but not daily boatloads of paying customers for the gangs.
November 28, 2022
The NIMBY charter from the anti-growth coalition. “Local control over new development” is just a euphemism for “No local development”. I hope Sunak ignores you and defeats these amendments with Labour support.
November 28, 2022
Roy. What’s the point in building new homes without the infrastructure to go with it? You must be living somewhere where intense building isn’t happening. The consequences are not good. GPS are hard to see, there are no NHS dentists, hospital beds are in short supply and schools have no places for certain year groups. Anyone who is ill or has children at school should be concerned. I suppose you’re one of those who can’t put a figure on when you think we should stop.
November 29, 2022
RG,
We do not all want to live in cities or self imposed Tory urban ghettos. So for the Tory govt to impose this on rural communities should not be a surprise. Cameron thought rural communities were turnip Taliban or swivelled eyed loons!
The Tory lies and excuses have run out of road.
November 28, 2022
@Roy Grainger I have to disagree with you, while in some parts of the Country Nimbyisum exsists – for the Greater Majority the central one plan fits all is costly to all of us and has to date never achieved its objectives.
November 28, 2022
More houses & flats or fewer people it is a fairly simple choice. I prefer mainly the latter.
November 28, 2022
the former should also specify more surgeries, dentists, schools, trains, buses, jobs!
November 28, 2022
@ Roy Grainger – but there is nothing inherently wrong with not wishing for more development in a particular locality. The fault in Nimbyism is people demanding development but then objecting to it if it touches their own area.
It seems fair enough to let development power rest with those who have local knowledge. The government-created problem is half a million new arrivals annually require a city the size of Liverpool (as Sir John wrote a few days ago) to accommodate them.
November 28, 2022
Who is ādemanding developmentā? I donāt know anyone who wants the 750 new rabbit hitches they have planning for in Bridport – but they are being built.
November 28, 2022
All the people who buy what is developed would be my guess, along with those who want provision made for others. The 750 Bridport homes are not going to remain unoccupied by reason of not being wanted, are they?
November 28, 2022
Are you part of the CIYBY coalition, Roger, as in Certainly in Your Back Yard?
More folk around the world are on the move, and there are now 8 billion living.
Surely you would want local control to maintain some quality living space.
November 28, 2022
āNimbyismā = perfectly normal self preservation.
How far would one go in avoiding being a āNIMBYā.
Give the last crumbs on the table when oneās children were starving?
November 28, 2022
I commend you for your action, Sir John. Be sure to mention the average age of the first-time, home-buying CITIZEN.
Two of the most pleasant places to live in Kent are East and West Malling. I had hoped to move to one of the other but both are now being trashed by new housing developments. (I decided not to buy a new-build, on a point of principle.) First comes the strip-development, linking neighbouring villages by roadside-building. Then comes the ‘re-purposing’ of our limited stock of farmland. Finally, the filling-in of any green gaps left. I’m sure Tom Tugendhat will have something to say on the matter when you next share a cuppa. All of this ‘development’ is necessary because of your party’s unwillingness to curb immigration.
P.S. Recently finished reading Tom Bower’s bio on Boris Johnson. As mayor, Boris prioritised chasing a figure of 300,000 new homes. They mostly came in the form of high-rise towers – and nearly 70% of them were sold to foreigners, many of whom were just property-speculators. Some of them even left the places empty!
November 28, 2022
Just wait when the dopey Brits vote into power a REAL progressive party rather than the treacherous buffoons that now inhabit No.10. The flood will become a tsunami designed to impose irreversible changes upon this nation. And all because the Tories didn’t like being called ‘the nasty party’
Britain is a dump because British voters vote for political parties that actually despise who and what we are
November 28, 2022
Hear! Hear!
All sacrificed because they were so scared of a little name-calling.
At the same time becoming nastier than anyone would have dreamed possible!
November 28, 2022
+1
November 28, 2022
Sadly if you supported brexit you could only vote for the Tories at the last election, which was a single item election
If the Tories had any pride and integrity they wouldāve called for a new election as soon as brexit crossed the bar ā¦the didnāt and canāt be trusted
November 28, 2022
All the political leaders in the UK are bizarrely signed up to the same WEF manifesto that pledges loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party.
November 28, 2022
@Javelin +1 Seemingly yes, they dont work for those that elected them and pay their wages. So do we actualy still need a UK Parliment? Even that is now becoming a waste of money
November 28, 2022
We do need a proper Parliament that will act as a check on the executive. Sadly the separation of powers no longer exists in the UK.
November 28, 2022
I wonder if Hunt has received the Chinese āfriendship medalā
November 28, 2022
Liz has joined Boris in his desire to make the UK the wind of Saudi Arabia. Despite, unlike Boris, being a trained accountant and numerate, she wants more turbines in be on the land in this overcrowded country and, like Boris, doesn’t understand that the more wind the more backup you need and that the nuclear baseload is going to reduce over the next 8 years. Only about 6 MPs seem to realise this.
November 28, 2022
Richard Tice the leader of the Reform Party isnāt signed up for WEF
November 28, 2022
Richard Tice has some brain cells.
November 28, 2022
Having more Local Control over everything that provides for local communities is more effective and produces better cost effective results.
Planning from on high is plain stupid, the one size fits all approach is not only dumb it is costly both in price and on the communities affected.
November 28, 2022
You need to do something about Land Banking, Sir John.
However, with many of the Land Bankers or their friends sitting in the two Houses on your side I doubt whether there’s the will.
In general, however, that so many Tories want to make the UK planning system – already one of the laxest in Europe – even looser is telling.
Counter-intuitively it is also one contributory factor to why residential property is so expensive here. Because cheap, shoddy building is legal it is also highly profitable. In turn, because it is so lucrative, landowners selling land for development want their share of the loot, and so land becomes stupidly expensive, and so round the vicious circle things go…
November 28, 2022
If you are a construction company you need “land banking” as you call it NHL
It is the equivalent to stock if you run an for example an engineering company.
You buy land and then apply for planning permission.
This can take years.
You then line up the project to start when other projects are completed.
The workforce and the plant and equipment then moves onto the next project
You apply for finance to fund the project.
This can take months to get agreed.
A construction company has a workforce of a certain number of people with defined skills.
They have plant and machinery which they own.
The ability to do multiple projects at the same time is limited by these constraints.
If you had worked in industry or construction you would be able to understand and consider these things
But you let your politics cloud your views.
November 28, 2022
Good morning Sir John
The Telegraph has picked up on what you and most of your contributors have been identifying in recent weeks.
āThe Tories have surrendered power to quangocrats and vested interests
If bodies like NHS England are to make all the decisions, then they must be held accountable for the results ā
āHave you heard of Amanda Pritchard? She employs more than 1.2 million people, and spends around Ā£160 billion per year. She is more powerful than most ministers and company chief executives. The organisation she runs suffers from poor productivity and declining performance. Yet she remains remarkably unaccountable. ā
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/27/tories-have-surrendered-power-quangocrats-vested-interests/
This Conservative Government is not in Control, they are Controlled by the unelected unaccountable they throw our hard earned tax payer money around like it is confetti and never seemingly ask those they give it to to account for it. There are no expenditure cuts just greater tax grabs and the Country goes to the ādogsā
November 28, 2022
I’m sure in reality things are a bit more ‘grey’ – but I must admit that it ‘feels’ like there is a great deal of truth in this view. It certainly doesn’t feel like Government is in control of things, at least of the important ones like immigration, finances, health care and housing. A pretty grim list really.
November 28, 2022
They don’t have any fiscal discipline, they throw our taxes around with abandon.
November 28, 2022
I wonder why Germany ha a substantially higher GDP per capita than us; is it e.g. because in Germany,
the medically qualified run hospitals and engineers run engineering businesses? Obviously this provides less opportunities for arts graduates and spiv accountants but there is a down side to everything.
November 28, 2022
Which is how the EU planned it.
National governments are to be left to wither on the vine and provide a thin veneer of democracy.
November 29, 2022
yes – The European Council is the collection of leading tyrants from the countries!
November 28, 2022
Mr Sunak will not stop the actual flow of Channel boat crossings as he is thinking of his next job in 2 yearās time which may well be for a supranational organisation. His new international friends would not approve of an Australian style solution. His āfurther measuresā will be all about managing the inflows only. Similarly with Chris Skidmore, preparing the ground for a lucrative future role in the renewable energy sector. Just like Chris Huhne before him, who once promised that subsidies to renewables would be short lived as theyād become economically competitive in a few short years.
November 28, 2022
The Planning Policy needs to include a clause which makes it mandatory for every employer of every immigrant to provide that immigrant with a new-build house/flat as part of their employment package. Said house/flat must be available for them the minute they arrive in the UK.
If the potential employer (the likes of Lord Wolfson) wants low-wage immigrant employees in the south of England, the cost of providing a Ā£300,000+ house for every immigrant they want to pay a minimum wage might make them think again. At the moment these multi-nationals are shielded from the true costs of importing low-wage migrants.
November 28, 2022
I’m surprised that the green lobby aren’t up in arms about the ever-increasing numbers of new house building plans, seeing that the production of concrete/cement requires expenditure of huge amounts of energy and in the process emits more CO2/tonne than almost any other material. Net zero, anyone?
November 28, 2022
Good point Martyn. A bit like being able to pollute cities with a car as long as you pay to do it. Where do they get these idiots who make up these money making scams?
November 28, 2022
There will never be enough houses provided.
The whole scheme is predicated on demand outstripping supply. If power moves to buyers the bubble may burst leaving banks and investors in property exposed. These are the people who influence policy.
Excess immigration of non-contributors helps business but screws taxpayers in tax and cost of living.
November 28, 2022
Liverpool had 1.4m population in 1950. They half emptied it, by 1990 it had dropped to 900,000. The UN projects it will be up to 1m by 2030. https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/22859/liverpool/population
Who is going to create the jobs?
November 28, 2022
But immigration policy is not under local control. So, for example, my local council cannot inform the government that we have reverted to the previous policy of “would be zero immigration”, first introduced in 1962, so we will not be allowing more people to settle in the borough from outside, and greatly please the majority of local citizens by announcing that we will not be building on the golf course or putting up any more high rise blocks.
November 28, 2022
Who runs the UK ā Not this Conservative Government
NHS employs more than 2,000 managers on six-figure salaries
Highest earners in health service paid almost twice as much as Prime Minister at a time when nurses are due to strike over wages.
There are 529 senior officials at NHS England, the Department of Health and associated quangos on six figures. While at the same time no extra clinicians – all the extra money was supposed to create.
Boris Johnson threw money at the NHS, never asked for any accountability, we all gets taxed until it hurts.
You can run the same equation over every taxpayer entity that is now in control of this Conservative Government
This Conservative Government knows how to Tax, and spend, spend, spend, but canāt account for expenditure.
Then now as you say Sir John, they(The Government) believe they should be let loose on local planing.
November 28, 2022
All your recent posts have been right on the button Sir John as is this morning’s.
We all have our level of incompetence and our current PM his reached his. We had promises of action on all the critical matters facing the country during his campaign but since he got into office nothing practical has been done or even started. He has given away more of our money, curtailed the Home Secretary over immigration, done nothing on the NI Protocol and slapped a windfall tax on Shell which was about the stupidest thing he could have done.
I hope you add your signature to Ian Brady’s letter on illegal immigration
November 28, 2022
Stupidest, if you assume that he wants a favourable outcome for the UK!
November 28, 2022
The more you look at the headless chicken mode this Conservative Government is perusing suggests they are not in control and are looking for a purpose.
Every one of us can spend our own money better than this Government, everyone of us can plan our communities, our jobs, our education system, our health and so on better. Simple because we would be monitoring the return, the reward and the contribution things make in our world. Simple budgetry house keeping. This Conservative Government hasnāt even got control of its own departments they control them. They are lost for a purpose and resort to the Communist top down level of control.
November 28, 2022
Good luck with that, but I fear the Government have decided it is easier to concrete over England than stop mass immigration, after all stopping immigration might mean they get called racist, while they can call the people trying to fight against the destruction of our countryside Nimbys .
November 28, 2022
From the MsM
āThe Government give up to Ā£1billion to middle income households across the UK to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.ā
Good to see this is coming from this Conservative Government and NOT the Taxpayer..(sarc)
November 28, 2022
And itās the same insulation grants the government(s) have been giving out since the 1970s ā¦.another taxpayer funded gimmick
November 28, 2022
I presume Sunak’s funding it from his and his wife’s fortune.
November 28, 2022
Off topic but it would be appreciated if you could inform Grant Shapps that Northern Ireland is actually part of the United Kingdom. He has just made himself appear ignorant during an interview on ITV’s ‘Good Morning Britain’. Surely as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy he can’t be that stupid, can he?
November 28, 2022
True enough that “Slower growth in population is many peopleās preferred environmental policy…” but ought not the many better be in favour of no growth at all or a reduction?
NC21 (3) (five year supply) is much needed. There was a sudden scramble of activity by developers in my local authority area as soon as the five year supply could not longer be shown.
November 28, 2022
So we can OFFER them decent homes!!! Nobody OFFERED me a decent home. I had to work hard and save a deposit and take on a mortgage. And my first home was not that ādecentā. I had to do loads of work on it to make it a ādecent homeā. Sometimes, Mr. Redwood, you write things that raise my blood pressure. Anyone would think you havenāt been a Tory MP since 1987.
November 28, 2022
That’s exactly what I thought Mike.
November 28, 2022
The Daily Express reports that Rishi Sunak has announced an extra Ā£113m for the NHS, describing the plans as “radical” and “life-saving”.
No mention as to its accountability, no mention of what as happened to the EXTRA billions the NHS has received in the last few years. No mention of why NHS bosses have given themselves a 15% pay rise, are denying pay rises for nursing staff, have not raised the number of clinicians but are talking of job cuts.
Rishi Sunakās Conservative Government is not in control but is being controlled
November 28, 2022
Please may I repeat a comment from nearly four years ago?
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2019/01/03/housing-policy/#comment-985626
“For several decades the British government professed to be concerned about the threat of over-population of the country, urged the British people to have fewer children, using the NHS to spread that idea, and had a policy of āwould be zero immigrationā.
Then when the birth rate had dropped so far that there was barely any excess of births over deaths it quietly changed its mind about the threat of over-population, and started to bemoan the declining numbers of young people entering the workforce and to talk about a ādemographic timebombā, and set about importing other peopleās children to make up for those which we had not produced partly at its previous urging.
If Britain really needed more āyoung workersā as alleged then the British people could have provided those themselves, and the government could have taken practical steps to encourage that, we did not and we do not need to constantly import āyoung workersā from abroad in a kind of demographic Ponzi scheme.
This policy reversal was a gross betrayal of the British people by their own politicians; and to be clear it actually started under Major, not Blair.”
November 28, 2022
It really is a matter of halting immigration.
There is also the matter of little old ladies on their own in large family homes in fourth decade of retirement with the heating turned up, even in Summer. “I’ve nothing else to spend my money on so I don’t care how expensive gas is.” My own town has lots of this.
Help to Move, not Help to Buy.
November 29, 2022
you really do stretch a point beyond being reasonable….all these women retiring in their 60s living alone in a big family house in their 90s with the heating turned up! Nothing else to spend it on? What no children, grandchildren, even great grandchildren? Are you that elderly hater under another name?
November 28, 2022
You say “lowering CO2 output” But this is not a sensible goal anyway we should not even even be aspiring to this. Anyway the “solutions” the government push – EVs. wind, solar, public transport, hydrogen, heat pumps… do not even do this – they just destroy jobs, damage the economy and export CO2 production.
November 28, 2022
I see that Professional footballers in Scotland are to be banned from heading the ball in training the day before and the day after a game. Clubs are also being told to limit exercises that involve repetitive heading to one session per week.
So is Boxing still to be allowed in Scotland? What about all the many other rather dangerous sports – horse riding, cycling, skiing, hang gliding, rugby…?
November 28, 2022
Completely support these amendments as itās crucial we substantially reduce immigration. Iām frankly amazed environmentalists (and others) have not realised the massive impact immigration has on our environment, our towns and villages, our communities, health services, schools, associated infrastructure and way of life?
November 28, 2022
They may not have realised but the public certainly have.
November 28, 2022
Marxists view mass immigration as a tool to destroy our society/civilisation, thus the more the better.
Marxists also view Net Zero as a tool to control society.
For the two policies to contradict each other is of no consequence to them as end policy objective is the same, them in control, and they won’t be embarrassed by difficult question about the contradiction as their friends in the media won’t make a big deal about it.
November 28, 2022
āā I want a substantial decline in the numbers of migrants coming to the UKāā
If this was a real stated aim, youād be shouting from the roof tops for the repeal of ECHRs, the enforcement of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 and the embargo of foreign students (605,130 in 2020/21) ā¦everything else is a distraction a meaningless distraction
And ā¦during the term of this government (12 years) there has been a total net immigration to the UK of 3.2 million (TalkTV News 09.15am) ā where do the all live !
November 28, 2022
and how many left, how many died?
November 28, 2022
Glen – They eventually all live where they want ie. in towns, forming ghettos in high rise, and in local areas already blighted destroyed for the mainstream good decent local british people because no local sensible person would wish to mix it with them if they could avoid and that is the problem.
The solution is – they should not be allowed live where they want – if upon completion of checks and the paperwork they were scattered to the four winds, destination assigned by the authorities, and ordered to stay put – for a period of five to ten years or more – that would put a stop to a lot of it.
November 28, 2022
Snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere is a at record high for the past 56 yrs and Winter is still nearly a month away. So why would we want to lower the CO2? Rather cold in Australia historically too currently I see.
November 28, 2022
There are a couple of things I do not understand:
Firstly areas in the South-East of England have more severe planning pressures than the rest of the country. But the rules restrict the ability of the rest of the country to develop and level up. So why does a single set of planning regulations cover both areas with different needs? Sure it would make sense to have different rules in each region.
Secondly, why don’t Wokingham and similar councils in the South-East focus development around nodes on the rail network? They could create high-quality, densely populated communities similar to Kensington in London to house many people in a small area. People here would easily access places like Reading and Bracknell by train, and it would reduce pressure on clogged roads and achieve your planning quota without building over your remaining countryside.
November 29, 2022
Describe nodes for me. Wokingham and Bracknell and other stops on the line have suffered incredibly excessive house building – mainly of interest to the young, often without families yet. Just how would you help them reach the stations on the line? Especially avoiding parking cars in all the roads which are becoming yellow line nightmares?
November 28, 2022
Sir John. Immigration to this island has been too high for a quarter of a century. Your Gov has had twelve years to deal with it and has totally failed.
With 5 million on ‘out of work’ benefits we don’t need any immigration at all. However, you continue to allow legal immigration and catastrophically fail to deal with illegal immigration.
Result; Build all over England to house the world.
November 28, 2022
Brace for 8 million Ukrainians arriving shortly in the EU (which apparently includes us in the minds of the political class).
Entirely self-inflicted pain on the part of western āelitesā.
November 28, 2022
Excellent news! Once again, thank you!!
November 28, 2022
We do not have a housing crisis in England. We have an inward migration crisis.
503,000 NET arrivals in the last year will require 193,000 homes, assuming the stated size of the average household from the 2001 census which is 2.6 people.
It is a fact that we are building 120,000 homes a year so if migration was reduced below the average in recent years, (200,000 net arrivals), we are actually building enough.
Yet, the CBI are demanding even more migrants to come and work here!
They need to automate their businesses more and increase their woeful efficiency.
November 28, 2022
Just as Sunak drives small business into bankruptcy and large business and industry abroad due to high energy and high taxes! Who pays the taxes when there are fewer jobs? Still, the brain drain will make room for a few more of their precious immigrants.
November 28, 2022
Currently developments going up all over my area, cheap, soulless boxes, banged up to meet your governments bullying. A shame you canāt be more assertive with the NHS, Home Office, swathes of the Civil Service where frankly you have lost control.
A quick scan of your amendments appears to me to go from feast to famine with Nimbyism back because no local community wants evermore building just the current pressure on the roads makes even more, totally unacceptable let alone the other services. Is that your intention?
I guess that will be Gove/Sunakās pushback.
November 28, 2022
I think the builder’s local community money should be well directed into the ‘local’ high school (and by local, I mean the town that is getting all the buildings not redirected to areas that are not being tarmacked over) to make sure any shortfall in pupil places is made up with the builder, building new classrooms, extensions to canteens and gyms and new toilet provisions. It is far cheaper for the builders to do those works at their cost than engaging builders at the Council’s expense, as they always pay over the odds.
Mind you, 500 new homes = Ā£1m increase in rates per annum, so where is all that going as we do not see spending on local: roads, schools, pavements or other public buildings like the library and college? Our area has had 5000 new homes in a brief period of time. They minorly adjusted town centre traffic lights – it seems a proper waste of money because nothing has improved; the main dual carriageway is still blocked every rush hour by parked cars because they won’t fund widening the road to accommodate the parking they allow.
November 28, 2022
And at the same time you want to blight the countryside with unsightly wind farms when we have vast swathes of offshore available.
How do you come up with this rubbish?
November 28, 2022
Do you think the pylons that cover our country are unsightly? I think wind turbines are almost beautiful. The national grid was built in 3 years in the 1930s. Thankfully, people like you were ignored and the people in charge just got on with the job. Presumably you would never have allowed unsightly windmills to be built.
November 28, 2022
Mike. I can assure you that although you may like the look of them you wouldn’t want to have to live in the shadow flicker of the blades or listen to them 24/7 like some people have been forced to. The developers know every trick in the book to get around the wet behind the ears planners and inflict misery on residents. You have to have VERY deep pockets to fight them. They have had plenty of practise in Scotland so are dab hands at getting their way. What starts out as a small windfarm ends up being massive when an extension is granted and often with much larger turbines. Be careful what you wish for.
November 29, 2022
I might like big neon lit advertising hoardings – but why should the public have to see them from miles away?
November 28, 2022
Nig1. Two good posts.++++
November 28, 2022
Wind farms whether onshore or offshore haven’t to date reduced anyones domestic energy bill …and never will
November 28, 2022
Your last sentence pre NC21 is key. Current population 67 million plus, illegals 2 million plus, all too many. In 1939 it was about 41 million.
Ever increasing automation demands fewer low skilled manual workers, but more skilled ones to look after the automation.
Decide via statistics what rate of reproduction increases, stabilises, or reduces population. Set Child Benefit and Taxation to achieve the level desired.
Encourage skilled immigration but not dependents beyond a wife and children. Allow for a refugee element that we can integrate.
Via education produce the skills required so that long term importation of same is unnecessary. Understand that this could be a fifty year project so it needs fireproofing against five year political cycles.
November 28, 2022
where’s Professor Neil Ferguson and his spreadsheeting expertise (when you don’t need him)?
November 28, 2022
The quite separate problem of housing can be solved as follows:-
1. Create jobs away from overpopulated areas like Wokingham.
2. Automate the creation of homes in purpose built factories. The building industry is archaic, expensive, of poor quality, monopolistic and controlling with too much lobbying influence, not fit for purpose.
3. As a basic example remember prefabs, as a very modern example look in Sweden.
November 28, 2022
I have always understood that Building Societies will not give mortgages for prefab type buildings – does anyone have an update on that?
November 28, 2022
I’ve always thought the Levelling Up Bill was all about wealth redistribution, rather than fairness for all as it is billed. It is another socialist concept that will be sure to create more problems than it allegedly solves.
If an area needs investment then it should be justified and allocated, not made part of a parcel of measures that will just spread resources too thinly to do any good….. Making all parts of the country equal suggests making them equally poor – which is no answer to anything!
We should stop filling our towns with ever more homes – time to use some of the land that is undoubtedly under-used, like Scotland.
November 28, 2022
Bryan. Yes Sturgeon is always shouting from the roof tops about how they welcome immigrants. Trouble is once they get there they tend to migrate south and disappear into the ether.
November 28, 2022
āThe Tories have surrendered power to quangocrats and vested interests
If bodies like NHS England are to make the decisions, then they must be held accountable for the resultsā
Nick Timothy is surely right today in the Telegraph.
November 28, 2022
The situation in Wokingham is exactly the problem in the area where I live in South Oxfordshire . Sir John is absolutely right in his post this morning . As far as illegal immigration is concerned we should immediately get rid of them 24 hours after their arrival . The related present cost and how we deal with the immigration dilemma is ridiculous .
November 28, 2022
with daughters in South and West Ox I hear about the pain and disillusion all the time.
November 28, 2022
A very common sense proposal detailed in the article. For which a great many will agree.
The only problem is, the leadership of the Conservatives is devoid of any common sense – and so any sensible proposals won’t even be entertained.
November 28, 2022
Business as usual then?
You will be urging the government. The government will be ignoring you.
Of course, it will all be sugar-sweet… “My right honourable friend is quite right…” etc.
Your only power is putting letters in to Brady or abstaining and voting against Hunt/Sunak’s measures until they go.
3 PMs in one 80-majority parliament seems a lot, so it seems strange to say that the need for a 4th is desperate – but it’s true.
November 28, 2022
If Sunak gets his way, XY, and the future is enforced migration plus enforced house-building, that’s a lot of Tory votes to be lost. So then he’ll be out of a job by 2024. He must know that.
But should a political party be led by someone who doesn’t care if he loses?
November 28, 2022
The āLevelling Up Billā There is a oxymoron in its self. There is no such thing it is just a Political sound-bite that was started by Boris Johnson to hang his hat on.
The UK needs Governing. The Government need to get on with making their departments and Quangos accountable and simply butt out of things Local People can do better for themselves.
The Government shouldnāt even contemplate dictating to others how many should be spent until they can demonstrate that they know how to do it themselves.
Sir John, this Bill is all Smoke and Mirrors, a deflection from failure and a waste of Parliamentary time. How can the MPās in the HoC even contemplate debating this while the mess builds up elsewhere.
November 28, 2022
āāLevelling Upāā is a made up name, a made up department and made up bill to appease a made up MP ā¦.GOVE
November 29, 2022
You’ve missed the point, Ian, that the effect of the amendments would precisely be to get government to butt out of local housing policy. A debate on government interference in housing policy was very much needed, whatever we think of the ‘Levelling Up’ agenda.
November 28, 2022
Decisions on ‘planning’ should be left firmly in the hands of local government. No council should come under pressure to build more houses in an area than the locals are comfortable with.
November 28, 2022
Just as Sunak drives small business into bankruptcy and large business and industry abroad due to high energy and high taxes! Who pays the taxes when there are fewer jobs? Still, the brain drain will make room for a few more of their precious immigrants.
November 28, 2022
It is important to fight building on greenfield sites. Building should be restricted to brownfield sites; however, this can only be achieved with far better quality planning in order to ensure developments that enhance the environment whilst substantially increasing the dwellings per area as against those achievable with one and two story boxes or piecemeal blocks of flats. For example here is outline planning application by a national architectural practice in my local area which will accommodate possibly a thousand people on a nine acre site within easy walking distance of a main line station, bus routes, schools and a major shopping area:
https://whittamcox.com/projects/sackville-road-brighton-and-hove/?page=1&anq=id_400
This compares with another local area mostly developed post-war of bungalows, houses and flats admittedly containing two schools but having a population of 6.7 people to the acre rather than the above-mentioned scheme where it might be about 130 people per acre.
Many countries around the word have understood how to accommodate a newly urbanised population
offering the advantages of urban living as against the UK where either builders want to build large housing estates removed from facilities or massive blocks without any context.
November 28, 2022
For the Wokingham constituency, isnāt it a case of trying to slam the stable door after the horse bolted long ago (35 years and still running).
Have a look at wokingham.gov.uk āOverview of major developmentsā then the individual āMajor development progress mapsā.
November 28, 2022
Is it legal to block roads? Put simply – no.
The maximum penalty for the wilful obstruction of a highway is 51 weeks in prison. Offenders can also receive a fine. The government is also trying to put through new legislation to crack down on these types of protest.
The Public Order Bill would grant new powers to prosecute someone who interferes with the operation or use of key national infrastructure in England and Wales – whether on the roads, railways, or air transport infrastructure.
High Court injunctions have been sought by several transport bodies, including National Highways and Transport for London, to prevent protesters disrupting major roads.
Those in breach of an injunction can be held in contempt of court and could face imprisonment, an unlimited fine and seizure of assets.
[With a >75 majority – just DO IT !
November 28, 2022
I found it difficult to interpret in today’s post the section NC 24, especially statements such as
‘The NPPF must not contain a presumption in favour of sustainable development including where there are no relevant development plan policies, or such policies are out-of-date.’
I can only assume this means that the proponents of the amendment oppose a presumption in favour of housing development, regardless of whether the local authority has a current development plan. If so, this is a radical departure from present policy, where Westminster insists every LA has a development plan. If I’ve understood the amendment right, Westminster would instead be saying to LAs ‘No need for a development plan if you don’t want one.’ Wow! It would be good to know if this is actually what is intended, or if I’ve missed something.
November 28, 2022
It’s not more house building we need but far less immigration.
But it won’t happen because the Conservative Party has been so long in power that it has completely succombed to Robert Conquest’s second and third laws of politics.
November 28, 2022
In addition to planning housing Sir J, how about really fastrack planning and approvals for reliable energy.
Just so you know wind is generating 2.2% of GB demand as I write this, really b. useless.
I don’t care anymore which reliable energy sources are used, I just know this government has the responsibility to keep the lights on, basic, elemental.
I am minded to crowdfund a case of Maladministration for cocking this up despite plenty of resources beneath our feet.
November 28, 2022
New house building figures by year are published by the ONS:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/housing/datasets/ukhousebuildingpermanentdwellingsstartedandcompleted
This data shows that from 2001 to 2020, the average number of houses built was 177,593/year. From 1981 to 2000, the average was 200,065/year. From 1961 to 1980, the average was 334,895/year.
House building has nearly halved since the 60s and 70s. Perhaps that massive decline in supply is a major contributing factor to any current shortfall.
November 29, 2022
The earlier years was a response to post-war house building need. The mid-years were a wish to spread out to the ‘leafy countryside’ assisted by new towns and relocation of town/city businesses’. The more recent years a response to much easier borrowed money and the massive influx of immigrants.
November 28, 2022
450 people have crossed the English Channel in 9 small boats today
Thatās another 450 houses to be built
November 28, 2022
“Local control over new development for housing”. If you get elected to an English District Council, you have to make a beeline to become a high profile, influential member, of the planning committee. This will assure your route to getting new bicycles for your kids next Christmas; courtesy of your very appreciative local housing developers. Plus, you will never have to pay for a Gin and Tonic at your local Conservative Club for years. Been there done that.
November 28, 2022
Looking forward to your proof that all planning committee Councilors in the UK are corrupt in return for free bicycles and alcoholic drinks acorn.
I assume you will give your evidence to the Police.
November 29, 2022
Try this one for starters “Stories that shocked Tyneside: The high rise and fall of a leader who got greedy”.
November 29, 2022
Your ridiculous attempt at a generalised smear of all local councillors has failed acorn
December 5, 2022
I hope you realise P2 that you were the one starting with āall planning committee councillorsā then went on with āall local councillorsā.
Acorn had just given an example of what he had seen as a councillor. You were the generalising one.
You really are the fifth ace in a 32-card pack.
But keep on the good work. Your comments lately seem to have reduced in quantity but not in their incredible quality.