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New homes for the North and Midlands News

UK Residential Property Expansion + Housebuilding Issues: Reaction to Budget

16 Dec 2020

UK Government pledges more new homes for the North and Midlands

Housing secretary Robert Jenrick announced today a rethink on controversial UK housing need algorithms which favoured the South rather than the North for development.

He said an updated method would level up delivery of 300,000 new homes a year concentrating on brownfield and urban sites in England’s 20 largest cities such as Birmingham and Manchester.

About £67m is to go to the West Midlands and Greater Manchester combined authorities to help deliver new homes on brownfield sites.

The government wants to encourage homebuilding to revitalise high streets and boost economies and in January will launch a £100m brownfield land release fund.

New homes for the North and Midlands UK

Mr Jenrick said: “We want to build more homes as a matter of social justice, for intergenerational fairness and to create jobs for working people. We are reforming our planning system to ensure it is simpler and more certain without compromising standards of design, quality and environmental protection.”

The government is encouraging councils to ensure appropriate numbers of family homes come forward, with the right mix of home sizes, types and tenures.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated and magnified patterns that already existed, creating a generational opportunity for the repurposing of offices and retail as housing and for urban renewal,” said Mr Jenrick.

Builders back repurposing of vacant properties

The Federation of Master Builders, FMB, said it supported the conversion of empty buildings such as shops as a way of breathing life into high streets.

FMB chief executive Brian Berry said: “Building on brownfield land helps protect green spaces while unlocking the new homes that we desperately need. Small to medium-sized housebuilders train 71 per cent of apprentices and build high-quality homes, so making the funding accessible to them is crucial to building back better.”

The government is to revise the problematic 80:20 rule where the majority of development agency Homes England’s funding went to the least affordable, and often most affluent, areas. Former chancellor Philip Hammond introduced the ratio as a way of calculating need and the pay-off for building extra housing.

Peter Freeman, Home England’s new chair and a leading figure in the Kings Cross revival, will sit on a new urban centre recovery task force to develop and regenerate England’s major cities.

London is to be encouraged to build upwards with the government introducing a London plan direction of a tall building being 18 metres and above. The mayor Sadiq Khan’s affordable homes target of 116,000 by March 2023 looks questionable as this year he’s struggling to meet his 10,300 goal.

The government has said it will strengthen Homes England’s powers to work with the Greater London Assembly and London boroughs to close the gap between delivery and targets.

Brokers Hank Zarihs Associates said that property development lenders backed moves to build more homes in the heart of London.

Previously on e-architect:

30 Sep 2020

Impact Of Covid-19 on UK Housebuilding

New Figures Show Impact Of Covid-19 On Housebuilding Rates

The number of new build homes started or completed in England between April and June 2020 fell to their lowest levels since the year 2000as Covid-19 hit the construction industry, according to new figures.

Read more at New UK Housing: British Housebuilding

UK Stamp Duty Changes

8 July 2020
Chancellor’s ‘mini budget’ for green jobs misses mark on transport and housing, says to CPRE

Read more at UK Summer Statement Response

8 July 2020
RIBA reacts to Chancellor’s ‘Plan for Jobs’

“The RIBA has long advocated for a ‘green’ post-COVID recovery, so I welcome the Chancellor’s efforts to put sustainability front and centre of today’s announcements.”

Read more at RIBA UK News

6 July 2020

Is ‘build build build’ best for England’s planning system?

Alister Scott, Professor of Environmental Geography and an expert in urban planning and infrastructure, writes for The Conversation on proposals to change the UK’s planning system.

English Planning System

18 Jun 2020

Timber Frame: Accommodating The Differential

With sales of timber homes and buildings heading towards £1bn in the next 12 months*, Andy Swift, sales and operations manager, UK & ROI for ISO-Chemie, considers sealant tapes for timber frame structures and accommodating differential movement:

New UK Timber Frame Building

3 Jun 2020

UK Architects welcome landmark ARCO Report

We post comments from Mark Rowe, principal at Penoyre & Prasad and Félicie Krikler, director at Assael Architecture in support of ARCO’s landmark report launched earlier today:

Too little, Too late? Housing for an ageing population

Imber in Wiltshire, on Salisbury Plain, England “was evacuated in 1943. The village, still classed as a civil parish, remains under control of the Ministry of Defence”:
UK MOD site, housing in Imber
photograph © swns.com

UK MOD Housing site, Imber
photograph © swns.com

British Houses

Fleet Street Hill Housing in London by Peter Barber Architects:
Fleet Street Hill Housing London
image from architect

Murray Grove Housing in London
Stadthaus Murray Grove Housing
Stadthaus photo : Will Pryce

UK Housing Links:

Housing Crisis

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British Homes

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English Architecture Designs – chronological list

Location: UK

Contemporary British Homes

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Black House, Kent, Southeast England
Architect: AR Design Studio
Black House Kent contemporary property - English Houses
image courtesy of architects
Black House in Kent

A House for Essex, Essex, Southeast England
Design: FAT Architecture and Grayson Perry
House for Essex by FAT + Grayson Perry - English Houses
photograph : Jack Hobhouse
A House for Essex

Balancing Barn, Suffolk, Southeast England
Design: MVRDV
Balancing Barn by MVRDV in Suffolk - English Houses
photo : Living Architecture
Balancing Barn Suffolk

Hurst House, Buckinghamshire, Southern England
Design: John Pardey Architects with Ström Architects
Buckinghamshire Property: Hurst House, Bourne End
photo : Andy Matthews
Buckinghamshire Property

Contemporary North European Homes

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Comments / photos for the New homes for the North and Midlands – Current British Housebuilding page welcome