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Tag: Grant Shapps

The real problem raised by the Homes and Communities Agency affordable homes figures

The real problem raised by the Homes and Communities Agency affordable homes figures

On the face of it the Homes and Communities Agency statistics for affordable housing starts are absolutely awful. I’m going to go out on a limb and accept that they look significantly worse as a snapshot of what is going on than the reality on the ground. The data suggest that the starts are back-end loaded within the financial year, so a drop in this half of the year would have been expected. Obviously this drop was greatly exaggerated by…

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House building figures provide no comfort in an age of uncertainty and need

House building figures provide no comfort in an age of uncertainty and need

Housing completions in England in the third quarter of this year at just 24,250 were the lowest in a generation or two at least. The Government can hide its shame a little by pointing to the seasonally adjusted figures which show completions in the final quarter of 2010 were lower. This still falls within the current Government’s time in office, but they have some room then to blame their predecessors. While a decline in the social sector might be expected,…

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The dials are set for a long period of flatlining but high house prices that bodes ill for building

The dials are set for a long period of flatlining but high house prices that bodes ill for building

The latest batch of housing market indicators show no real sign that the UK market overall is either collapsing through concerns over the economy and jobs or rising on lack of supply. The pattern continues of house prices gently sliding nationally. But as the latest report released today by the surveyors’ body RICS shows London remains, in the eyes of estate agents at least, a completely different market to the rest of the UK. In London a positive balance of 25%…

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Don’t read scare stories into the housing figures – we already know things are bad

Don’t read scare stories into the housing figures – we already know things are bad

The latest CLG house building figures for the second quarter of this year seem to be consistent with the view that activity is settling down to a new post-recession lower level. Much has been and is made of the jumps up and down each quarter in the starts and completions figures. But this volatility should be and should have been expected. No more significance should be given to the latest drop in starts than to the buoyancy in the numbers in…

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Spiralling rents pose a tough question for Shapps: Where will the new homes come from?

Spiralling rents pose a tough question for Shapps: Where will the new homes come from?

The latest survey of the residential rental market by the surveyors’ body RICS is likely to wind up the pressure on the housing minister Grant Shapps to promote more house building. The survey suggests that rents are rising ever faster, driven by rising demand in a market where supply is constrained, as the graph taken from the RICS survey shows.

Do the house building figures really show recovery? Well not really

Do the house building figures really show recovery? Well not really

The latest house building statistics published yesterday tell us practically nothing about the prospects for the industry over the year ahead, other than things don’t appear to be getting worse and that we are still a huge distance from where we were three or four years ago. Why then does our housing minister Grant Shapps feel the need to pump up the value of what really are still very flaccid figures for housing starts? He tweeted: “These better house building stats…

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No prizes it seems in the New Homes Bonus for being a housing-friendly good planning authority

No prizes it seems in the New Homes Bonus for being a housing-friendly good planning authority

Yesterday the allocations were released for the New Homes Bonus. And Grant Shapps happily slapped away criticisms that councils in the North were being unfairly treated under the scheme saying three of the top five councils benefiting most are in the North or Midlands. His geography may have been correct when reading from the list of the biggest lumps of money allocated. Sadly he appears to have revealed either his ineptitude with statistics or his willingness to abuse their meaning.

A New Year a welter of New Challenges for Mr Shapps

A New Year a welter of New Challenges for Mr Shapps

Happy New Year and here is wishing fervently that it progresses far better than those reading the runes might suggest. For me the year has started encouragingly and for that I must congratulate Grant Shapps, our housing minister. In May when Shapps took the ministerial reins attached to the wild stallion that is housing I argued that the first big question he had to face down was whether he believes house prices at current levels are sustainable or not. In…

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Sticks for the North, carrots for the South in the New Home Bonus handicap race

Sticks for the North, carrots for the South in the New Home Bonus handicap race

Long before he was in office the Housing Minister Grant Shapps evangelised about the New Homes Bonus in a way that suggested it would lead to a new world where local residents badgered their councils to grant permissions for more homes. I’ll confess my initial reactions to the early presentations more than a year ago might fairly be regarded as sceptical, even though I am in favour of incentives to prompt development. Still, in April next year, if all goes…

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