I miss the good old days of George Osborne as Chancellor with his hardhat and hi-vis jacket. He must have visited every new-home building site in the UK with his trademark attire! For the last few years the nearest Philip Hammond got to donning a ‘Bob the Builder’ outfit was at his grandchild’s birthday party.
However, with what appears to be a change in focus by the Tories to ensure they get back in power in 2022, they appear to have fallen in love with house building again with the Chancellor’s promise to create 300,000 new households in a year.
Nationally, the number of new homes created has
topped 217,344 in the last year, the highest since the financial crash of
2007/8. Looking closer to home, in total there were 257 ‘net additional
dwellings’ in the last 12 months in the Rutland County Council area, a decent increase
of 96% on the 2010 figure.
The figures show that 94% of this additional
housing was down to new build properties. In total, there were 242 new
dwellings built over the last year in Rutland. In addition, there were 22 additional
dwellings created from converting commercial or office buildings into
residential property.
While these all added to the total housing stock in the Rutland
area, there were 7 demolitions to take into account.
|
Net additional dwellings in Rutland
in the last 12 months
| ||||
|
New build
|
Conversions
|
Change of use
|
Demolitions
|
Net Additions
|
|
242
|
0
|
22
|
-7
|
257
|
I was encouraged to see some of the new
households in Rutland had come from a change of use. The planning laws
were changed a few years back so that in certain circumstances, owners of
properties didn’t need planning permission to change office space in to
residential use.
With the scarcity of building land available locally
(or the builders being very slow to build on what they have, for fear of
flooding the market), it was pleasing to see the number of developers that had
re-utilised vacant office space into residential homes in the local council
area.
Converting offices and shops to residential use will be vital in helping to
solve the Oakham housing crisis especially, as you can see on the graph, that
the level of building has hardly been spectacular over the last seven years!
Now we have had the autumn budget, Theresa May
and Philip Hammond have set out their stall with housing as their key focus. I
was glad to see the government introducing a variety of changes to improve
housing, including more funding for the supply side and an injection of urgency
into the planning system. Although, I
am keen to see where all these new homes will be built!
Back to the main point though and the focus on
the housing market by the Tories is good news for all homeowners and landlords,
as it will encourage more fluidity in the market in the longer term, sharing
the wealth and benefits of homeownership for all.
However, in the short term,
demand still outstrips supply for homes and that will mean continued upward
pressures on rents for tenants.
If you would like a free valuation of a property you already own, for either sale or rental purposes, please get in touch.
David Crooke
MD, Owner UPP Property Agents 01780 484 554
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