INDUSTRY NEWS 5
First time buyer scheme launched
The Government has announced a programme to provide homes to first time buyers at a 30 per cent discount against market value, with a cap imposed on value across the UK, in a move to provide a quarter of affordable homes as ‘First Homes.’
One of the First Homes programme’s key criteria is that the sale value is no higher than £250,000 (rising to a £420,000 maximum in Greater London). Local authorities will decide who will
qualify for these homes, with other crite- ria including that a minimum of 25 per cent of all affordable housing units secured through developer contributions should be First Homes.
Developers can be exempted from paying Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) on First Homes, but they must only be sold to people meeting the eligibility criteria.
First Homes are the now the
Government’s “preferred discounted market tenure,” and it said they should account for “at least 25 per cent of all affordable homes.”
Local authorities and neighbourhood planning groups have discretion to require a higher minimum discount of either 40 per cent or 50 cent, “if they can demonstrate a need.” Rico Wojtulewicz, head of housing and planning at the House Builders Association (HBA), part of the NFB, commented: “Just like the delivery of social housing,” the cost of First Homes will be a challenge for small and medium sized developers. “However,” he says, “I am sure this policy will prove popular.” “We hope councils now take the social housing challenge more seriously by setting themselves higher housing targets in local plans and meeting that ambition to either build their own social homes or working with housing associations and other registered providers to deliver them,” he added.
Office blocks left empty following the pandemic risk being turned into poten- tially substandard housing, as a result of ‘permitted development’ rules that bypass the need for planning permission, councils have warned.
New analysis by the Local Government Association (LGA) also found that more than 16,000 affordable homes could have been lost in England in the past five years as a result of offices converted into homes under permitted development rights. In some areas, office to residential conversions account for a “significant proportion of new homes,” said the LGA. While it notes that different types of accommodation will be appropriate for different people at different stages of their lives, and in some cases office conversions can provide a suitable option, the LGA said it has “long had concerns about some of the substandard housing created from permitted development conversions, and the lack of any requirement for developers to provide affordable homes or supporting infrastructure.”
The LGA reported that in 2019/20 more than half (56.6 per cent) of all new homes in Trafford were office conversions, 40.9 per cent in Crawley, with other areas seeing similar high levels of ‘permitted development’ schemes. The association commented: “This means communities are unable to have their say on these conversions to ensure they meet high quality standards. There’s no requirement for the developer to provide any affordable housing or supporting
WWW.HBDONLINE.CO.UK
LGA warns of substandard permitted developments in urban areas
infrastructure such as roads, schools and health services, as there would be if planning permission was required.” The Government has extended permit- ted development rights to apply to all commercial units and business premises – meaning shops, banks, restaurants, gyms, creches and offices can now be turned into homes without planning permission. The Government’s own 2020 report found that permitted development conversions can “create worse quality residential environments than planning permission-based conversions, in relation to a number of factors widely linked to the health, wellbeing and quality of life of future occupiers.”
The LGA applauded its move to lessen the negative impact on communities of permitted development rights by introducing space standards for new homes. However, it said that “concerns remain” about the quality, design and safety, as well as location of such conversions.
The LGA has called for permitted devel- opment rights to be scrapped as part of a strengthening of a locally-led planning system. It feared that with many offices and other premises potentially being left redundant following Covid-19, they risk being turned into housing via the method. Councils are able to remove permitted
development in specific areas via ‘Article 4’ directions, although this can be a lengthy process requiring approval of the Secretary of State. The LGA warned that curtailing councils’ ability to use Article 4 however would represent a further blow to local democracy. Cllr David Renard, LGA housing spokesperson, commented: “Councils are committed to building the housing this country desperately needs as part of the national recovery, but we urge the Government to protect the future quality of new homes by permanently revoking the permitted development rights for change of use into homes.”
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
