[Politics] Benfield Valley - Action needed now from locals !!!

[Westdene Seagull]

That's not quite accurate. The census will provide information on homes that were unoccupied on a single night, not vacant dwellings. People could be away on business, on holiday, in hospital, in hotels while having work done ... etc, etc. A vacant property is one defined as being empty for a year - and in 2022, there were 1579 empty properties in B&H.

But even that can be a misleading figure. I'm someone with an empty property. My mum died in May 2022 and her house is standing empty. However, we couldn't do anything about selling it until we achieved grant of probate (that's about eight months). We then had to sort out estate agents (and as it's 350 miles away, that wasn't a simple job) but it went onto to the market in April. We accepted an offer after a few weeks and that chugged along until a few weeks ago when they suddenly pulled out of the sale. So, we have an empty property that we're keen to get rid of but it's probably going to stand empty for close to two years - and that's down to bureaucracy, not the owner.

Probate is definitely an issue when it comes to releasing property. Probate for my parents took nearly two years. Of course the value of their properties ( 4 ) has somewhat dropped since the probate values ( I prefer the word 'guesses' ) were put in. Yet I'm being investigated for "under valuing" them. Still have two properties to sell. There should be a temporary probate issued at time of death to allow properties / assets to be sold and then IHT calculated on the REAL selling price rather than some fairytale figure. It would also release property into the market quicker.

 

[Gwylan]

Probate is definitely an issue when it comes to releasing property. Probate for my parents took nearly two years. Of course the value of their properties ( 4 ) has somewhat dropped since the probate values ( I prefer the word 'guesses' ) were put in. Yet I'm being investigated for "under valuing" them.

Interesting. We had the opposite issue, the value in probate was £30k more than its estate agent price (and I suspect we'll sell for about £5k under that). It's certainly a bit of a guessing game. Our solicitor thought probate would take longer, so eight months was relatively quick.

 

[Worried Man Blues]

and while you're at it ban second homes.

 

[BrightonCottager]

any actual evidence for this? developments i'm familar with have been built and moved into within year or two of permission granted. i'm usually surprised just how quick they've built.

The Competition and Markets Authority are investigating this at the moment and recently published a working paper. Larger housebuilding firms have a UK landbank of about 1.1m plots with planning permission. The Letwin review found evidence of dripfeeding '...
that once implementable planning permission is in place, the major housebuilders proceed to build at a rate designed to protect their profits by constructing and selling homes only at a pace that matches the market’s capacity to absorb those homes at the prices determined by reference to the local second-hand market. ' (para 2.16).

This probably isn't the case for smaller housebuilders whose business model depends more on rapid turnover (they've borrowed money to do the development).

The recently passed Levelling Up and Regeneration Act includes measures intended to reduce landbanking and dripfeeding. However, the major housebuilding firms deny there's a problem.

 

[Weststander]

@Weststander @Psychobilly freakout @Westdene Seagull & @Chicken Run all make very valid points about Housing in B&H and the wider South East. It is a lot more complicated than our national politicians make out - its not just a matter of building more homes as
1) housing is used as a form of investment, not 'just' providing a roof over a head,
2) there are no controls over foreigners buying UK property (a particular problem in London) which has a knock-on effect in the wider SE,
3) housebuilding firms (dominated by a few large companies) dripfeed new homes onto the market to keep prices high
4) public sector house building collapsed after Thatcher's acceleration of right to buy and ban on Councils to spend the proceeds.
5) the abandoning of regional planning in 2010 removed any larger than local process of where new housing and infrastructure should go
6) I have heard anecdotal evidence (thank you @Psychobilly freakout ) and from Hanover that studentification is in retreat. I'd love to see some data - & the Council's Housing Market Reports seem to have dried up since last year. As well as the new private builds, the Council now restricts new HMOs in certain areas (& will probably get the powers to do the same for short term holiday lets). Evidence from my visits to other University cities with my daughter seems to support @Chicken Run 's view that UK 2nd & 3rd years tend to move into house shares after the first year in halls. Some Universities own their own stock or have lists of approved landlords. In Sheffield, the City Council even inspects and approves shared student housing.

Good post.

One big reason studentifcation is in retreat is the completion of medium to vast sized halls of residence/student accommodation blocks. Coldean Avenue and Lewes Road are glaring examples, there are also significant new blocks elsewhere eg in streets off of Lewes Road and on the London Road.

A good thing I think.

 

[Weststander]

The Competition and Markets Authority are investigating this at the moment and recently published a working paper. Larger housebuilding firms have a UK landbank of about 1.1m plots with planning permission. The Letwin review found evidence of dripfeeding '...
that once implementable planning permission is in place, the major housebuilders proceed to build at a rate designed to protect their profits by constructing and selling homes only at a pace that matches the market’s capacity to absorb those homes at the prices determined by reference to the local second-hand market. ' (para 2.16).

This probably isn't the case for smaller housebuilders whose business model depends more on rapid turnover (they've borrowed money to do the development).

The recently passed Levelling Up and Regeneration Act includes measures intended to reduce landbanking and dripfeeding. However, the major housebuilding firms deny there's a problem.

Smaller housebuilders have largely left the industry over the last 20 years. The architects and consultants fees required just to risk it on outline planning permission, are now multi £10k’s per unit. The capital needed and risks are too great. Leaving the large and some medium, with far fewer smaller developers (often it’s joint ventures).

 

[Weststander]

That's not quite accurate. The census will provide information on homes that were unoccupied on a single night, not vacant dwellings. People could be away on business, on holiday, in hospital, in hotels while having work done ... etc, etc. A vacant property is one defined as being empty for a year - and in 2022, there were 1579 empty properties in B&H.

But even that can be a misleading figure. I'm someone with an empty property. My mum died in May 2022 and her house is standing empty. However, we couldn't do anything about selling it until we achieved grant of probate (that's about eight months). We then had to sort out estate agents (and as it's 350 miles away, that wasn't a simple job) but it went onto to the market in April. We accepted an offer after a few weeks and that chugged along until a few weeks ago when they suddenly pulled out of the sale. So, we have an empty property that we're keen to get rid of but it's probably going to stand empty for close to two years - and that's down to bureaucracy, not the owner.

That is included in the empty homes numbers.

 

[Brovion]

@Weststander @Psychobilly freakout @Westdene Seagull & @Chicken Run all make very valid points about Housing in B&H and the wider South East. It is a lot more complicated than our national politicians make out - its not just a matter of building more homes as
1) housing is used as a form of investment, not 'just' providing a roof over a head,
2) there are no controls over foreigners buying UK property (a particular problem in London) which has a knock-on effect in the wider SE,
3) housebuilding firms (dominated by a few large companies) dripfeed new homes onto the market to keep prices high
4) public sector house building collapsed after Thatcher's acceleration of right to buy and ban on Councils to spend the proceeds.
5) the abandoning of regional planning in 2010 removed any larger than local process of where new housing and infrastructure should go
6) I have heard anecdotal evidence (thank you @Psychobilly freakout ) and from Hanover that studentification is in retreat. I'd love to see some data - & the Council's Housing Market Reports seem to have dried up since last year. As well as the new private builds, the Council now restricts new HMOs in certain areas (& will probably get the powers to do the same for short term holiday lets). Evidence from my visits to other University cities with my daughter seems to support @Chicken Run 's view that UK 2nd & 3rd years tend to move into house shares after the first year in halls. Some Universities own their own stock or have lists of approved landlords. In Sheffield, the City Council even inspects and approves shared student housing.

Yes, good post. And of course it's not just 'Homes Alone' that we need, it is the whole infrastructure, although as Husty's excellent meme (post #27) highlights that is often used as excuse to oppose development. ("I'm not a NIMBY but ...")

And yes, ban second homes, or at least make the Council Tax 50 times what residents would pay.

 

[Chicken Run]

@Weststander @Psychobilly freakout @Westdene Seagull & @Chicken Run all make very valid points about Housing in B&H and the wider South East. It is a lot more complicated than our national politicians make out - its not just a matter of building more homes as
1) housing is used as a form of investment, not 'just' providing a roof over a head,
2) there are no controls over foreigners buying UK property (a particular problem in London) which has a knock-on effect in the wider SE,
3) housebuilding firms (dominated by a few large companies) dripfeed new homes onto the market to keep prices high
4) public sector house building collapsed after Thatcher's acceleration of right to buy and ban on Councils to spend the proceeds.
5) the abandoning of regional planning in 2010 removed any larger than local process of where new housing and infrastructure should go
6) I have heard anecdotal evidence (thank you @Psychobilly freakout ) and from Hanover that studentification is in retreat. I'd love to see some data - & the Council's Housing Market Reports seem to have dried up since last year. As well as the new private builds, the Council now restricts new HMOs in certain areas (& will probably get the powers to do the same for short term holiday lets). Evidence from my visits to other University cities with my daughter seems to support @Chicken Run 's view that UK 2nd & 3rd years tend to move into house shares after the first year in halls. Some Universities own their own stock or have lists of approved landlords. In Sheffield, the City Council even inspects and approves shared student housing.

Yep, my daughter who started at Leeds in September and is currently in Devonshire Halls has already sorted out the shared house for next year up there!!

 

[Husty]

To be fair, it’s good to see NSC’s man of the people (never wrong, apart from Solly March) on the side of big business for once.

Let us know when you move in.

Pot, meet kettle etc

 

[CheeseRolls]

Not sure I buy the green lung argument. We are very fortunate to have the South Downs wrapping around a huge chunk of the sussex coast. The bits that are really worth fighting to defend for me are Telescombe Tye and Goring Gap.

The other thing that drives me nuts is people opposing development becuase the infrastructure is not able to cope. Developers must absolutely love this short sighted argument. The better approach has to be to support more housing but demand that developers make a fair contribution to the required infrastructure.

 

[BrightonCottager]

Not sure I buy the green lung argument. We are very fortunate to have the South Downs wrapping around a huge chunk of the sussex coast. The bits that are really worth fighting to defend for me are Telescombe Tye and Goring Gap.

The other thing that drives me nuts is people opposing development becuase the infrastructure is not able to cope. Developers must absolutely love this short sighted argument. The better approach has to be to support more housing but demand that developers make a fair contribution to the required infrastructure.

Most Councils have something called Community Infrastructure Levy - a charge on developers for hard and soft Infrastructure which is needed to service their development. Developers also pay Infrastructure providers fees for connecting to existing infrastructure. Councils have to justify the charges and are under scrutiny on its spending. Councils can also seek further funding in legal agreements with developers for extra 'infrastructure', land and other 'planning gain' (although its not called that anymore). This includes affordable housing. The government wants to sweep away this system and replace it with a national Infrastructure Levy, even though most in the sector think it won't work.

One of the big local infrastructure issues is that Southern Water have not been investing in existing or new infrastructure even though its been taking extra water charges and connection fees. It now estimates it needs to spend £135.6m to upgrade the Marine Drive Pumping Station and create sustainable drainage schemes across the city equivalent in size to 12 Preston Parks...by 2030. So yes, there is a big problem in infrastructure getting built at the time it needs to be.