news
Cumbria new homes have UK’s fastest broadband connection
Homes at Crindledyke Farm, one of Cumbria’s largest housing developments, have the fastest broadband connection in the UK. The site, developed by north-west housebuilder Story Homes, offers residents 1000Mbp/s broadband connections. Story Homes has teamed up with another local business, Solway Communications, to create the broadband offering for residents on the development, which has outline permission for 850 new homes. Solway Communications delivers the broadband service through associate company Triple Connect, which uses a dedicated fibre optic connection to each house using Solway’s own infrastructure. Nick Kittoe, managing director of Solway Communications, said: “The service we are
offering the residents of Crindledyke is the highest quality and speed, much faster than any other mid-market housing development in the UK. The only competition we are aware of is a small number of some exclusive developments in London, with multimillion-pound price tags, way above the budget of the average family or small business.” According to Solway, the average broadband speed in Cumbria is 7Mb/s download and 1Mb/s upload, which is generally in the better-served areas. Louise McGuckin, head of sales for Story Homes, said: “This is the first time that we have been able to offer such a service on any of our developments and feedback from customers has been extremely positive. Residents
downloading or streaming content receive a much better speed than anywhere else, so for them, the service is a real benefit, making it an additional selling point for our homes.”
Miliband slams “land hoarding” housebuilders and councils who block development
Labour leader Ed Miliband has warned that the “shortage of new homes is part of a sustained cost-of-living crisis for millions of families and a threat to Britain’s future prosperity”. Having launched an independent housing commission, led by Local government finance expert and former BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons, Miliband has pledged that the next Labour government will back local authorities that want to build new homes and condemn those that he claims “systematically block such development”. Lyons has been asked to “draw up a road map for increasing the supply of new homes in England to more than 200,000 a year by the end of the next parliament”. The Labour leader also announced that four Labour-controlled councils – Stevenage, Oxford, Luton and York – have signed up to become the first “right to grow” local authorities. Miliband said: “I want to send a clear message today: we will tackle those councils that block homes, those developers that hoard land and this government that fails to act on the worst housing shortages for a generation. We will stand up for homebuilders and first-time buyers. And take on those who stand in the way of working people and their children having the decent homes they deserve. David Cameron is presiding over the lowest levels of homes built in peacetime since the 1920s – and already families are suffering from some of the worst housing shortages for a generation. This is now part of a cost-of-living crisis for millions of people for whom the dream
of homeownership is fading into the distance. “The government has focused almost solely on increasing demand for housing and, while tinkering with planning rules, has done next-to- nothing to increase supply. The result is a broken market where it now takes ordinary families over 20 years to save enough for a deposit and those renting privately are paying as much as half their income on rent. At current rates we will be two million homes short of what Britain needs by 2020. If families are to prosper and our country is to succeed, Britain needs new homes. And the next Labour government will lead a non-stop drive to build them.”
After slamming local authorities, which he says block development, Miliband turned his fire on housebuilders, saying: “Profits for our four biggest housing developers are going through the roof. They have soared 557% since this government took office – even though homes have been built at their slowest rate witnessed in peacetime for almost a century. But there are large amounts of land – enough to build more than a million homes – earmarked for houses which have not been built. Developers need a bank of land with which to work. But sometimes they, and other landowners, are hoarding it. The next Labour government will give councils powers to charge fees or, if necessary, purchase such land, so that developers have an incentive to do what they went into business to do. We will back homebuilders. But we will tell land hoarders with sites that have planning
permission that they must use it or lose it.” Secretary of state for communities and local government, Eric Pickles, responded scathingly to Milband’s speech. Pickles said: “Under Labour, housebuilding fell to its lowest peacetime rate since the 1920s. Their top-down Regional Strategies and eco towns failed hardworking families who aspired to own their own home, building nothing but resentment. That’s why we have worked with local communities to help build more homes, scrapping Regional Strategies and rewarding construction via the New Homes Bonus. We are helping hardworking people up the housing ladder through Help to Buy and the reinvigorated Right to Buy. Both first-time buyers and housing construction have risen to their highest level since 2007, while repossessions have plummeted thanks to the lower interest rates from our long-term economic plan. “Labour’s policy shows this is the same old Labour party. They would allow Labour councils to forcibly rip up Green Belt protection in neighbouring councils. While their new tax on planning permission would reduce housebuilding and discourage regeneration schemes. We know there is more to do to help build homes. But this must be done by working with hardworking families in communities across Britain, allowing councils to shape where development should and shouldn’t go via Local Plans, and safeguarding important environmental protections.”
showhouse January 2014 |
09
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116