TheComment


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James Max is a chartered surveyor and broadcaster


There’s no good news! I


Pastygate, parties and planning policies. What does it all mean? Why can’t the Government just get it right? James Max isn’t impressed.


t’s as if David Cameron and George Osborne are competing with the current holder of the “see who can


make most PR gaff es in a week” world record holder, Gordon Brown. From “granny tax” to “pastygate”, they’ve managed to rebrand from the “nasty” party to the “party for the rich”. Congratulations. However the real disaster is what the Budget and planning reforms have done to the property market. Of course, most people don’t


live in a home that’s worth £2 million or more. Why should you care if a few holes in the government’s coff ers are fi lled by increasing Stamp Duty to 7 per cent for the most expensive homes in the land? If a property is your main home, then regardless of how much it is worth, to move, you’d have to fi nd an awful lot of money just to buy the same property. People will stay put. That creates illiquidity and restricts supply. Fuelling house price infl ation. It’s a disastrous tax. Quantitative easing continues,


which is infl ationary. As does the rampant profi teering of some retail banks. Interest rates may be low but try and get a mortgage


Well done!


“The property industry continues to speak with many voices. So many, in fact that there is no clear message.”


and not only is supply rather limited but the fees being charged are eye watering. Arrangement fees are back. As are infl ated valuation fees, registration fees, legal fees and every other kind of fee imaginable. Yet there is no intervention from the FSA. All they have done is tighten up lending rules. What a useless bunch they are. All of these various issues add fuel to infl ationary pressures, restrict supply in the wrong areas and clog the market. Meanwhile the property


industry continues to speak with many voices. So many, in fact, that there is no clear message. No coordinated policy initiative to improve housing market liquidity, get people moving and onto the housing ladder. After all a healthy housing


market helps everyone. The fewer fees and obstacles to buying, trading and developing


Theo Paphitis promotes agency


Richard Knight, Director of Estate Agency Recruitment fi rm Zara Lewis was invited to an event for a selected number of small business owners hosted by BBC Dragon, Theo Paphitis. Richard had won Theo’s #SBS ( Small Business Sunday) award on Twitter, where each week he selects six business’ to promote to his 230,000 followers.


14 ● May 2012 ● TheNegotiator


Richard said, “We never expected the impact it would have on our business, we gained many new clients and candidates, thanks to Theo’s help we have increased our brand awareness, which is fantastic!” Richard says, “Winning #SBS would be a fantastic opportunity for agents to market their services to local people who are on social media.”


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there are, the more stable a market place we will have. All of this in the context of the


release of the National Planning Policy Framework, reducing the planning rules and guidance from more than 1000 pages to less than 100. Good news you might say. In some ways it is. Yet there are problems. The “presumption in favour of sustainable development”. What on earth does that mean? Anyone? Exactly. Now we will have a slew of show appeals to establish exactly what the wording means. What can and cannot be built and just how much of a say will the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) brigade have? Over the last 40 years we have managed to build a signifi cant amount of awful housing. Identikit boxes. Schemes that lack architectural merit or usability. Short lifespans and simply a blot on the landscape. The housing industry


has tied itself knots. Large developers seemed to get their way. Heritage organisations used the media cannily and we have ended up with a policy fudge. I have called for it before and


will call again. It’s time to reduce Stamp Duty to a fi gure in line with share or company transactions. It’s also time to simplify the planning system into two constituent parts. One for existing urban areas and another for the countryside. The needs are very diff erent and cannot be catered for in one document. The process is too lengthy for some development projects and not protective enough for others. I don’t expect the new framework will make our lives any easier, even if the Daily Telegraph has largely welcomed the proposals. Much as they’d like to think they represent the nation, they don’t. What we can take from this is that the newspaper organised and coordinated itself and largely got its way. The property industry hasn’t and didn’t.


James Max presents Weekend Breakfast every Saturday and Sunday mornings from 7-10 am on LBC Radio and is a qualifi ed Chartered Surveyor.


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