New House Building in Rutland slumps by 25.2% in the last year

Speaking frankly, even with Brexit and the fact immigration numbers will now be reduced in the coming years, there is an unending and severe shortage of new housing being built, both nationally and locally.

Rutland’s increasing population and the subsequent demand for homes versus a curtailed supply of ‘new build properties’ is creating an imbalance, and the possibility of even lower interest rates will go further to underpin the property market.

 

When the Tories were elected in 2015, David Cameron vowed to build 1,000,000 new homes by 2020.  As a country, if we hit those levels of building, most academics stated the UK housing market would balance itself as the increased supply of property would give a chance for the younger generation to buy their own home as opposed to rent.  However, the up-to-date building figures show that in the first quarter of 2016 building ‘starts’ were down.  Nationally, there were 35,530 house building starts in the first quarter, a long way off the 50,000 per quarter required to hit those ambitious targets.

Looking closer to home, in 2014/15, for every 1,000 existing households in the area an additional 7.61 homes were built, for 2015/16, that figure is now only 5.69 homes built per 1,000 existing households.  Nationally, to meet that 1,000,000 new homes target, we need to be at 7.12 new homes per 1,000.

 

To put those numbers into real chimney pots, (according to the Office of National Statistics, from April ’15-April ’16), in the Rutland County Council area: 

·         60 Private Builders (e.g. New Homes Builders)

·         0 Housing Association

·         0 Local Authority

 

However, it must be said that there does seem to be a lot of building work going on currently in Rutland.  But remember, with only 60 new builds recorded last year and with a target of 75 houses needed per annum to even stand still, this means we need a minimum of 90 new homes building from April 16 – April 17.

I believe David Cameron and George Osborne focused their attention too much on the demand side of the housing equation, using the ‘Help to Buy’ scheme and low deposit mortgages to convert the ‘Generation Rent’ into ‘Generation Buy’.  Conversely, I would strongly recommend the new Housing Minster, Gavin Barwell, should concentrate the Government’s efforts on the supply side of the equation.  There needs to be transformations to planning laws, massive scale releases of public land and more investment, as more inventive solutions are needed.

Ultimately, responsibility has to rest on the shoulders of Theresa May.  Whilst our new PM has many plates to spin, evading on the housing crisis will only come at greater cost later on.  What a legacy it would be if it was Theresa May who finally got to grips with the persistent and enduring shortage of homes to live in.  The PM has already referenced the “need to do far more to get more houses built” and stop the decline of home ownership.  However, she has also ruled out any changes to the green belt policy – something I will talk about in a future article.  Hopefully these statistics will raise the alarm bells again and persuade both residents and councillors in the Rutland County Council area that new housing needs to be higher on its agenda.

For professional, trustworthy advice on buying, selling, renting and managing your personal homes and property investments please call David Crooke, UPP Property Agents.


Tel: Oakham 01572 725 825 or Stamford 01780 484 554

Email: david@upp-property.co.uk / www.upp-property.co.uk