October 2008 Archives

This year (so far) we've seen a total of 3 Housing Ministers, Yvette Cooper, Caroline Flint (remember the meeting note blunder?) and now ex-deputy leader of the Labour Party, Margaret Beckett.

Flint left the post on the 3rd of October 2008, but on the 1st of October she passed some interesting new bits of planning legislation. The new rules (or the lack of them) relate to building extensions, now you can build more without planning permission. How much more?

• 2 storeys as long as they extend no more than 10 feet from the back of a property.
• Loft conversions as long as they extend no more than 8 inches from the eaves of a property and are no more than 50 cubic metres in size.

      Miss Flint predicted the overhaul will remove around 80,000 planning applications, saving £40million.

Click here for a nice graphic of the whole thing.  

Just come back from a surprisingly up-beat seminar by Drivers Jonas at the Royal Society of Medicine. The prognosis - the property industry is not well, the good news is that it's not terminal, the bad news ... it's got to change its ways. If I were to summarise this mornings talks in a 3 step plan to recovery, it would look something like this:

1.       Spread the Risk - Develop as a group rather than individually, either with other developers, RSLs or the landowners.

2.       Think Long Term - Think about building more private sector rental units, more family homes, more sustainable developments.

3.       Negotiate - Renegotiate S106 conditions, forge links with Local Authorities.

But what of the immediate future? Well, in the short term, developers could rent out units on short term lets or if the land is as yet undeveloped what about advertising hoardings to generate some income?

Whatever the solutions, one thing's for sure; there will have to be a fundamental paradigm shift in the way the property industry does business in the future if it's to get back on its feet again. Get well soon.