Well off council tenants must pay market rent

[Eric Arthur]

"The nine housebuilders in the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 hold 615,152 housing plots in their landbank, according to financial disclosures. This is four times the total number of homes built in Britain in the past year."

 

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/dec/30/revealed-housebuilders-sitting-on-450000-plots-of-undeveloped-land

 

more like 4 years' worth..

 

I think we will agree that we aren't building nearly enough new homes.

[truman]

I think we will agree that we aren't building nearly enough new homes.

 

Maybe.. but it's not all down to NIMBYs as you suggested..

[Eric Arthur]

Maybe.. but it's not all down to NIMBYs as you suggested..

 

I'll ask the question about numbers and get back to you.

[poppet2]

So now you are suggesting that people should be committing fraud

 

Give me one example where I suggested people should be committing fraud to massage their income figures.

 

I have merely reported what others on this website have said about some of those on Mumnet.

 

Oh and maybe you are unaware that the government play by exactly the same rule! Remember the system they used to prevent those with a high income from receiving child benefit? If an individual person earned more then £50k they weren't entitled to it, but if there were two of you in a household with one earning £48k and the other £49k you were entitled to it!!!

 

Huh, and you wonder where those on Mumsnet get their ideas from - easy, they just follow their political leaders.

 

 

You have already had to apologise once for misquoting me, do you enjoy eating humble pie or something?

Edited February 9, 2016 by poppet2

[Cyclone]

Yep, extortionate prices on rightmove and other online sites, sometimes you can get new build house cheaper. People who sell them must think that planning permission is something unobtainable I would guess.

Your local council can be quite helpful. Maybe not abundant but still there.

Sheffield City Councill even encourages it in a way.

 

This encouragement is a new thing. It's a scheme that started less than a year ago. I've signed up for the updates and I've been watching it with interest.

So far all the plots that have been released on this scheme have been in areas of, shall we say, questionable desirability.

 

PP can be difficult to get, so plots that are sold with PP in place are worth far more than the basic land value, a 10 times premium wouldn't be unusual.

[Orzel]

This encouragement is a new thing. It's a scheme that started less than a year ago. I've signed up for the updates and I've been watching it with interest.

So far all the plots that have been released on this scheme have been in areas of, shall we say, questionable desirability.

 

PP can be difficult to get, so plots that are sold with PP in place are worth far more than the basic land value, a 10 times premium wouldn't be unusual.

 

Hopefully this scheme will make PP easier to get. They don't offer it with land yet but at least you know they are open for discussion and will give you guidance.

I've got some mates that are architects and surveyors, we thought about starting little partnership and discussing opportunities with council. But I'm not too keen on becoming developer.

[the fonz]

Maybe.. but it's not all down to NIMBYs as you suggested..

 

Very true

 

George likes to blame the councils because its not convenient to admit the problems lie with the private sector and the developers.

 

Blaming the planning process is a red herring, each council has allocated land for housing supply for the next 25 years, if land is within these sites planning permission is a certainty. Developers get permissions and just sit on the applications until they feel they can make the most from the market.

 

As a developer how is it in your interest to build loads of houses? this will only serve to increase the supply, reduce the demand and reduce the profitability. Its in your interest to throttle supply and this is exactly what's happening.

[the_bloke]

You have already had to apologise once for misquoting me, do you enjoy eating humble pie or something?

 

No, and I stand by my point; your whole argument in the opening post is you expect people to up sticks from council property where they have no housing benefit to private rent where they do. You've then had to embellish this with edge cases and quirks of the system to justify your argument in your desperation to argue the point.

 

I await the results of this change if it makes it to law, to see how few people actually do as you suggest in the determination to claw more money from the state instead of actually supporting themselves and having the responsibility to live within their means.

[Cyclone]

Councils (until recently) made no or little provision for self building though, and the land that was zoned for building on was often only offered for sale for large developments, putting it out of reach of self builders.

 

Land banks should be taxed, then there'd be no incentive to keep land idle.

[Berberis]

Very true

 

George likes to blame the councils because it's not convenient to admit the problems lie with the private sector and the developers.

 

Complete twaddle. Planning permission is down to the local council and they until recently were doing diddly squat to aid in the building of new houses. Trust me, I know how hard it is to get building permission even for a handful of houses. Its nothing to do with central government, its an issue decided locally.

 

The problem is, to build houses on a scale that allows for the investment by the banks, the builder has to build lots of houses. What with affordable housing quotas, the land available to build the houses that levie the profits needed in order to service the financial commitment is reduced. This si why many only want to build large scale developments. But there are no large scale brownfield sites, so the builder has to look beyond towns and cities and look to the rural areas, which in turn have councils opposed to building. This is where the NIMY's come into play and if it was me, I would be the same. If you owned a house that had a nice view over open countryside, the value in your property is partially due to that view. If Mr Builder comes along and builds a row of houses in front of it, your house value is diminished.