Three Million New Homes to be built?

6th Feb '19 by Ken Lowes

21 comments 2150 reads

This is excellent news for the construction industry but as I have been a contributor to this site for four years, I am going to be upfront with you right from the start. The above statement is true but not without your help, no not money just a few minutes of your time. You will all appreciate that if we build three million homes it will ease, possibly remove, a huge problem for our children and grandchildren- everyone deserves a home of their own. The government are aware and obviously acknowledge the problem, but without your insistence they will once again kick the can down the road for years to come. Young people are struggling to get on the housing ladder and are being forced to rent, which in turn means those on the next tier, who are desperate for a home but can’t afford the rent must live in multi occupancy houses, where they stand in line for up to three hours to use the only kitchen to feed their kids. Finally, the minority who are not even close to the bottom rung, the homeless, reduced to begging and sleeping with one eye open for fear of being robbed of what little they have left. Please don’t stop reading--

If we build three million homes and with your help, we will, we also employ thousands of new apprentice joiners, builders, electricians’ plumbers and give a future to the kids who leave school with little prospects. The only cost to you is a few minutes to cut and paste or click the link below- then scroll down and add your name to the petition. But don’t stop there, just one more step, tell as many of your friends and acquaintances to sign as well. Three million signatures on a petition to shame the government, any government into action.

We on this site are experts at the power of compound interest so three million is a large number, only without our help, does it become an impossible one. If we don’t act neither will the government. So, do it, please. If you are interested in the detail you will find it using the link below. Do it and one day we will look back and say “we did that I was involved” somethings can give us greater satisfaction than just making money, how often…

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Rusty2

6th Feb '19

Hi Ken, where are you going to put all these new homes? The problem is England is one of the most densely population countries in Europe, the south east region is even worse with almost 50% of the population living in that area. What you are proposing is like building 200,000 more homes in a county such as Essex. Who is going to fund it all? This is social housing so it's not getting on the housing ladder is it?
Whereabouts do you live?

matylda

Maybe Blackburn - 3 million homes in Blackburn, Lancashire...

Sorry!

No that was 4,000 holes, mind you probably a lot more now.

Ken Lowes

Herbie
Maybe that is the misunderstanding, I am not going to build any homes all of that is in the report and for greater minds than mine. What I am trying to do as a concerned citizen is gain public support to prove to the government who are currently sitting on the report that it is essential that they act, otherwise not only will the number of homeless increase but more and more people will be condemned to share accommodation with others. Surely everyone is entitled to home of their own? Shelter commissioned the report and I have taken it upon myself to try and raise public awareness of the problem by raising three million names to prove to the government that sufficient people care and want the problem solved. I live in one of the most expensive counties in the country, I am lucky, I can afford to buy whatever I like but that shouldn’t stop me from trying to help those who can’t. So why not help it will cost you nothing and you could be doing so much good. Please keep asking the questions I will do my best to give you an answer.

cig

Thing is, no country in Europe, save Monaco maybe, is particularly densely populated. England is 10% urban area, for 32 million households, so there's space for 288 million extra dwellings, without even playing with the urban density parameter (also ridiculously low). At Hong Kong densities you could comfortably fit the entire world population within England.

That said the petition is misguided: the easier solution to the housing issue is relaxing the absurdly restrictive planning rules.

Blissgull

Ken, I was one of the people who gave your post an immediate thumbs down. The reason is that it is a political matter which does not belong here.

In the aftermath of the 2016 referendum there was a heated political debate here and Stockopedia asked us to stop using this forum to debate such matters, except where it is relevant to the markets or individual shares. For over two years now we have all complied with that request.

I realise that you may feel that provision of sufficient housing is not a controversial or political matter, but others believe that social housing in this country is is often benefiting the least deserving and paid for by the taxes of those who worked hard all their lives.

Can we accept that these arguments do not belong here?

Matylda
You have 153 followers, that’s 153 signatures towards helping others. People like you are pivotal to the success of this campaign. The land can be found and the homes can be built it just takes commitment and the money will be created. Its economics builders employ people and people pay tax and spend money, the housing stock increases, young people with good salaries can afford to buy lower priced houses and move out of the rental space releasing homes to rent which are filled by those who cant afford to buy and the trickle down even gets to the person in the shop doorway. Go on Matylda sometimes the only way progress is achieved is by sacrifice and all I ask is a few minutes of your time, not even money.
Ken

Hi Blissgull Thanks for your honesty I respect your views and understand your motivation. If we don't solve the problem quickly then it really will become political and I remember the years of high taxes and high inflation where rental income could be taxed at 98% and i don't want to go back there. A little kindness doesn't hurt and I knew I could be in trouble but I thought the calibre of the indviduals who share would forgive me.

Hi Cig
I can assure you that the planning rules will be relaxed otherwise the petition will be a waste of everyones time. Many things need to change in order to achieve the objective but first we need the commitment

Of course I did not mean you literally, maybe I should have said they. I think 3m is too many. What will they built, 1,000s of tower blocks? That would create different problems. Homelessness is a real issue not just in this country. There are many houses/flats unoccupied, some homeless people won't go into homes and some are not even homeless. The est. number of homeless is around 320,000 of which about 9,000 are sleeping rough, so why do we need 3m new homes? I would support a scheme to house rough sleepers.

Well after Brexit planning is one that thing that probably will be changed. Yes you could build everywhere but what about quality of life, farming, building in places where people want to live or there is work. The greatest need is probably in London. The problem with population density is it makes land expensive, the big issue in this country is the cost of housing, France has a similar population but is about twice the size of the UK. House prices there are lower even with the £ falling against the Euro. Probably why we have the smallest homes in Europe. Houses in France only went up 2% from 2006 to 2015, the UK increased 30%. Monaco has the most expensive property prices in the world.

Albertos

We need more houses - its a plain and simple fact.

Government after government from the 70's/80's onwards have "addressed" this by increasing the demand side of the equation - never the supply.

There is actually plenty of brownfield land to build on, there are eyesores in all our cities/towns - often its a risk to developers due to industrial contamination - should be CPO'd, decontaminated by government and sold back to private developers or given to Housing Associations.

The solution is not Help to Buy - its freeing-up land for use (not greenfield), building up our trades base again, sorting out our ridiculous planning system and if necessary massive government funding for building affordable housing.

London is only a problem because we let it be a problem - why do so many live there - failure of regional policy.

Phil

dodge1664

7th Feb '19

Whilst I agree that the housing crisis should be addressed urgently, I don't believe that it would be sensible or desirable to build more homes in the the South East of England. More homes means more roads, and all the other associated urban build out. This would turn the South East into one huge urban sprawl, and eliminate the few remaining green spaces. I think the focus should be on building outside the South East, and on reducing immigration to a sensible sustainable level. I find it utterly frustrating that so few politicians in the UK and the EU seem to be able to grasp this.

jonesj

This is political and does not belong on this site. Hopefully it will be removed soon. I cannot find the Report button for the opening article.

The South of the country also has way too many houses under construction already.

Everyone is right in their own way but if we don’t do anything then nothing will get done. It is about the quality of life and for some who are living in overcrowded conditions or on the street the word quality doesn’t come into the conversation. As I have said all I am asking for is your name on a petition, no money, no effort. Every solution to a problem must start somewhere and we can kick start it by simply adding our name to a list of other names, it’s absolutely confidential, it won’t be used for anything else, even your name is hidden from view including mine. Everyone who has contributed so far is helping, positive or negative, but hiding behind a thumb your better than that.

With one of the most densely populated countries in the world, one could just as easily argue that discouraging further population growth is the solution. On a global scale, with global warming, the same argument could be made.

However it would be better if Stockopedia remains free from political campaigns.

One of the biggest causes of housing shortage in some areas was caused by uncontrolled immigration, some places were flooded with immigrants, hopefully immigration after Brexit will be more managed. Who knows maybe the population will decrease after Brexit. "The UK population is projected to rise both because of positive natural change and because of positive net migration. ... However, the size of the UK population with no additional net migration would level off at 67 million over the next two decades and would eventually start to decline after 2035."

There are other issues such as more homes only have 1 person living in them now. My view is there are too many people living in the south east already, one reason why I got out when I retired. There is also an issue about empty houses and second homes/holiday homes.
If there are so many brownfield sites then why do they keep building on greenfield sites?

aflash

Giving people anything is not going to help.

If you gave all Stockopedia subscribers the same fixed amount of money by the end of the experiment some would have a lot, some the same, some would have lost it all.

Same with socialist housing. Some look after it, the majority do not.

Many homeless like it that way. Often it is not a question of money. Some have mental problems, some reject materialism. Just because Ken Lowes has a fine home does not mean other humans want to be like him.

Asking the government to do anything is not going to help. Look at the mess they made with Brexit.

Do you really know that many homeless who like it that way? I have met a few, a very few but that isn't really the point. So thanks to all of you who have read this and moved on all 600 of you, thanks to the10 who agreed and as for the 28 who didn't--- thanks for keeping this post open and at the top of the page for far longer than I expected. If anyone wants to read the report with all the answers and few opinions it is here just scroll down to the bottom of the page
https://england.shelter.org.uk/support_us/campaigns/a_vision_for_social_housing
Regards
Ken

smatthews1

Whilst I am reluctant to comment on this and deviate from stockopedias true agenda, I am amazed at the effort that goes into demanding these houses without the thought about improving the local communities with schools, roads and services etc, they are all taking more strain yet we expect it to keep up. How's that working out for us with the policing in London?

True this is supporting local jobs and trade, but some of these estates are going up so quick, that they are riddled with faults, inadequate parking and just look a mess, just to squeeze as many houses in on one site as possible, to maximise returns for the house builders.

Three Million New Homes to be built?

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Ken Lowes

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