Cameron labels planning officials ‘enemies of enterprise’

By admin | Published March 9, 2011

The Prime Minister has described planning officials as ‘enemies of enterprise’ and declared that the forthcoming Budget will be the most growth-friendly for a generation.

Speaking at the Conservative Party spring conference in Cardiff on Saturday, David Cameron took aim at “town hall officials who take forever with those planning decisions that can be make or break for a business – and the investment and jobs that go with it”.

Cameron’s attack follows a pledge last week by business secretary Vince Cable to simplify the planning regime to make it easier to win approval for new developments.

Cable has said he is considering introducing a system of “land auctions” to encourage more land to come forward for development.

In his speech, Cameron also directed his ire at “government bureaucrats” and public sector procurement managers.

Cameron said: “We taking on the enemies of enterprise: The government bureaucrats who concoct those ridiculous rules and regulations that make life impossible, particularly for small firms. … Public sector procurement managers who think that the answer to everything is a big contract with a big business and who shut out millions of Britain’s small and medium sized companies from a massive potential market.”

Cameron confirmed that a New Enterprise Allowance would be put in place to support unemployed people with a “sound business plan” with up to £2,000 of support, first announced at the Conservative Party conference last autumn. He also said that he was “throwing open” government procurement to “every single business in our country”.

The Budget will be announced by the chancellor on 23 March.

Sourced from: Planning Resource

Posted in Government, Housing, Planning Permission | Leave a comment

Cable considers land auction plan to boost development

By admin | Published March 7, 2011

The coalition Government is considering introducing a system of ‘land auctions’ in a bid to encourage more land to come forward for development, business secretary Vince Cable said today.

Writing in today’s Financial Times, the business secretary said that the “market in land is dysfunctional, distorted by a slow and prescriptive planning regime and by speculative hoarding”.

Cable added: “Development and in particular badly needed construction, is paralysed, often in parts of the UK that need it most.

“That is why we are bent on planning reform, examining innovative ideas such as land auctions.”

In 2007, Liberal Democrat MP Ed Davey – now a colleague of Cable in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – proposed a “two-stage land auction system to replace the way planning permission is granted” in an article written for the Financial Times.

Under the system proposed by Davey and academic Tim Leunig a council would ask any local landowners to submit sealed-bid letters stating the price at which they would be willing to sell their land. This price would be binding and councils would be given the right to buy that land for a set period.

In the second stage, the council would choose which land offered they would like to see developed, would grant that land planning permission, and auction it to developers. The system would allow local authorities to capture almost all of the increase in land value created by allowing development.

Posted in Government, Housing, Land Investment, Planning Permission, UK House Builders | Leave a comment

London Land Prices Soar on Home-Development Demand

By admin | Published March 1, 2011

London Land Prices Soar on Home-Development Demand, FT Reports

London land prices are soaring as competition by international investors for sites reaches levels last seen before the recession the Financial Times reported.

Rob Perrins, the chief executive officer of Berkeley Group Holdings Plc, the U.K. capital’s biggest housebuilder, said investors are moving “from protection to investment mode” and sites with planning consent for residential development are rising in price, the newspaper reported.

More than 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) has been raised in the past two months and may result in construction of about 10,000 homes, with the emphasis on up-market developments, the FT said.

Next in line for injection of investor cash will be the economically buoyant regions such as Leeds, West Yorkshire and Bristol.

Posted in Land Investment, Land Values, UK House Builders | Leave a comment

House Builder Persimmon Profits Double in 2010

By admin | Published March 1, 2011

Homebuilder Persimmon has reported a sharp rise in full-year profits after cutting costs and selling more houses.

Pre-tax profits for 2010 came in at £153.9m, almost double the £77.9m the company made in 2009. Revenues grew 10.5% to £1.57bn.

The average house sale price rose by 4% to £172, 475, it added.

The company said activity in the first two months of this year had been “encouraging”, with visitor levels up 10% on a year earlier.

Persimmon chairman John White told the BBC that he expected house prices to remain stable this year.

“We don’t see much of an upturn,” he said.

Posted in Housing, UK House Builders | 1 Comment

House prices ‘will fall around 20%’ by 2013

By admin | Published February 21, 2011

House prices are 20% overvalued and will fall back towards long-term averages over the next 2-3 years as unemployment is set to continue rising and mortgage availability remains tight.

‘We think prices will fall around 20% over 2-3 years,’ said Paul Diggle, housing analyst at Capital Economics.

Diggle says this view reflects the fact that house prices remain far too high relative to earnings and the fact that he expects unemployment to rise in both 2011 and 2012 as government cuts bite.

He says ‘house prices are still overvalued. The long term average over the last 40 years was 3.7 times income and prices are currently around 5 times earnings.’

And Diggle warns the data also shows there is a risk that house prices could fall even more as ‘historically prices have fallen below long-term averages’. Also, he adds that his analysis has not taken account of that fact that ‘prices do undershoot long-term averages’.

Diggle does not believe that forecasters who base house price affordability on earnings relative to mortgage repayments are giving a true picture of the market given repayments at the moment reflect a record low Bank of England base rate that can only go higher.

That said, Diggle does not believe that interest rate increases would exacerbate the situation but thinks it is possible that if rates were to rise this year that could mean the falls would come sooner than he is currently predicting.

Capital Economics forecasts that the number of benefit claimants will rise to 1.7 million and 1.9 million in 2012 from 1.46 million in February and Diggle said that will lead to more forced sales and more downward pressure on house prices.

But not everyone is feeling so downbeat.

The latest survey by Rightmove revealed that new sellers coming to the market had mimicked those of February last year by increasing asking prices by 3.1% over the month to £230,030.

Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove, said the limited number of houses up for sale could keep many people locked out of the housing market. Diggle pointed out that the average age of a first time buyer is now 37.

Sourced from: City Wire

Posted in Housing, UK House Builders | Leave a comment