Skip to main content

More new homes for the North West, but still not enough

This is a column that I wrote for the Manchester Evening News' Greater Manchester Business Week to accompany news of GVA's most recent Development Outlook research.

We recently published new research which showed that the number of new homes being built in the region is increasing, but, whilst the Government is boosting demand, not enough is being done to boost supply.

12,480 new homes were started in 2013, which is an increase on 10,250 started in 2012, but still some way short of the 24,750 peak achieved in 2006 and the 38,000 currently required by planning policy. GVA’s latest ’Development Outlook’ research concludes that the supply of new homes will not meet demand unless the Government intervenes further in the sector.

The research notes that house-building has been boosted by a series of recent government initiatives that have helped development funding, stimulated housing demand and increased house price inflation, but cautions that a tightening of mortgage regulations could reduce effective demand and limit house price inflation. 

The only way to expand total residential development significantly is for the Government to increase infrastructure spending, further stimulate private rented sector development on sites less suitable for owner occupier housing, and increase the construction of public sector affordable housing.

The new Manchester Place joint venture between Manchester City Council and the HCA, which will help landowners get sites shovel-ready, assemble land, and coordinate responses to Government house building initiatives, is a great example of the public sector coordinating activity locally, but the Treasury still controls the purse strings.

Greater Manchester’s Green Belt is going to have to be amended to increase housing supply. The population of Greater Manchester is projected to grow by 5.38% by 2021, which represents 16,144 more people every year, which is significantly higher than the average rate of growth across the North West, which is 3.28%.

In addition to Manchester, Salford, Bury, Bolton, Trafford, Tameside and Wigan are all within the ten authorities in the region predicted to experience the highest growth and if Greater Manchester is going to accommodate the people required to drive the economic growth of the region then the Green Belt boundaries in these areas will have to be looked at.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Planning Reform Week

The first bit On the day that I started writing this the Prime Minister has confirmed in a move considered intellectually incoherent by some that hundreds of new oil and gas licenses will be granted in the UK, which signals that it is ‘Energy Week’ on the Government’s summer recess comms grid. A line appears to have been drawn from the role of an Ultra Low Emission Zone policy in securing a marginal win for the Conservatives in the Uxbridge & South Ruislip by-election to the softening of commitments to a net zero energy strategy. Seven days ago the Prime Minister launched the grid’s ‘Planning Reform Week’ by announcing that the Government will meet its manifesto commitment to build 1 million homes over this parliament, which would represent “another important milestone in the government’s already successful housebuilding strategy”. It is notable given the ground that Labour has gained on housing in recent months that the first week of the parliamentary recess was devoted to tryin
1 comment
Read more

Life on the Front Line

I like it when people get in touch with me to suggest topics for 50 Shades of Planning Podcast episodes because, firstly, it means that people are listening to it and also, and most importantly, it means I do not have to come up with ideas myself. I found this message from a team leader at a local authority striking and sobering though. In a subsequent conversation the person that sent this confided in me that their team is virtually in crisis mode. It is probably fair to say that the planning system is in crisis, but then it is also probably fair to say that the planning system is always in crisis… There is, of course, the issue of resources. Whilst according to a Planning magazine survey slightly more LPAs are predicting growth in planning department budgets (25%) rather than a contraction (22%), this has to be seen in the context of a 38% real-terms fall in net current expenditure on planning functions between 2010–11 and 2017–18. Beyond resources though the current crisis feels m
42 comments
Read more

Life on the Front Line II

It was about a year ago that Catriona Riddell first wrote in Planning magazine about low morale in local planning authorities, which Catriona, Peter Geraghty, Paul Brocklehurst and I followed up with the 'Life on the Front Line' 50 Shades podcast episode ( no. 60 ). 'Life on the Front Line' was informed by a 'Call for Evidence', the submissions to which, mostly anonymised, are reproduced on the Life on the Front Line 50 Shades blog post. Catriona has again used her Planning magazine column to raise the issue of morale in LPAs, making the point that, one year on, it does not feel like things have improved much. Many of the factors impacting on morale have been well documented, Catriona writes, but whilst there seems to be some general agreement around the causes, little has been offered in the way of solutions. As Catriona writes, too many authorities are actively discouraging a return to the office, which is not healthy; not conducive to team working; and is un
1 comment
Read more