Young first time buyers forced into nature deserts.

Hagar

Hagar

Hagar

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Ya know so what. We were forced into a terraced house with a yard amongst hundreds of terraced houses with yards, in a town with cotton Mills and coal mines. Nature, we ate it.

www.theguardian.com

Young first-time buyers forced into ‘nature deserts’, UK data shows

Exclusive: High cost of homes near green spaces may be deepening health inequalities, says wildlife coalition
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

We did have the cut (canal) near by. :D

This is a stupid grauniad style article trying to develop a grudge where there need never be one.
 
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Town centres died, and to solve a couple of problems (empty units, offices, buildings, etc) local councils hocked the sites to developers who turned a modest office building into 20 flats.

Local planners and councils favour high density high rise housing to maximise return and profit for developers and increase footfall to dying town centres. Too late of course, because any shop worth a damn has already shuttered.

So what are you left with? High density, high rise, town based housing for higher than expected prices. Maidenhead is the prime example of this in town, but there are some green spaces a bit further out.

Tl;dr - councils in lack of forethought, poor planning shocker desperate to keep their towns alive sell out to unscrupulous developers (probably Chinese or Arab backed) to look like they're doing something. In doing so create nasty living spaces devoid of character and nobody is held accountable, or ever will be.
 
randal said:
Town centres died, and to solve a couple of problems (empty units, offices, buildings, etc) local councils hocked the sites to developers who turned a modest office building into 20 flats.

Local planners and councils favour high density high rise housing to maximise return and profit for developers and increase footfall to dying town centres. Too late of course, because any shop worth a damn has already shuttered.

So what are you left with? High density, high rise, town based housing for higher than expected prices. Maidenhead is the prime example of this in town, but there are some green spaces a bit further out.

Tl;dr - councils in lack of forethought, poor planning shocker desperate to keep their towns alive sell out to unscrupulous developers (probably Chinese or Arab backed) to look like they're doing something. In doing so create nasty living spaces devoid of character and nobody is held accountable, or ever will be.
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That is exactly what has happened in Elgin. The town centre is dead thanks to the council's car parking charges and granting permission for out of town retail parks so between Elgin High street and South street there was a huge furniture retailer and our only toy shop which closed long ago and they backed onto what used to be a great bar/club and several retail units all of which were closed. Moray council gave a developer permission to knock them all down to create a massive building site on which they are building several ugly blocks of flats that will look completely out of place with the surrounding area. There is no open spcae for kids to play and there is nowhere near enough parking slots. If that isn't bad enough there is to be a shorter block of flats right in front of the bigger one so anybody who ends up buying one is going to have a very dark flat that never gets any sunlight. The councils excuse for granting permission was that it will keep the street alive.

 
pastymuncher said:
That is exactly what has happened in Elgin. The town centre is dead thanks to the council's car parking charges and granting permission for out of town retail parks so between Elgin High street and South street there was a huge furniture retailer and our only toy shop which closed long ago and they backed onto what used to be a great bar/club and several retail units all of which were closed. Moray council gave a developer permission to knock them all down to create a massive building site on which they are building several ugly blocks of flats that will look completely out of place with the surrounding area. There is no open spcae for kids to play and there is nowhere near enough parking slots. If that isn't bad enough there is to be a shorter block of flats right in front of the bigger one so anybody who ends up buying one is going to have a very dark flat that never gets any sunlight. The councils excuse for granting permission was that it will keep the street alive.

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They haven’t closed Joanna’s have they…? :eek:
 
Labour is obviously backing out of the affordable housing percentage requirement for London where with cost/availibility of labour, couldn't make a profit if the land were free.
more interesting was discussion on rescinding the requirement for flats to have two outlooks eg front&back , plus safety of multiple staircases.
 
jpaul said:
Labour is obviously backing out of the affordable housing percentage requirement for London where with cost/availibility of labour, couldn't make a profit if the land were free.
more interesting was discussion on rescinding the requirement for flats to have two outlooks eg front&back , plus safety of multiple staircases.
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That's a losing battle, property costs in London have far outstripped wages. It's a fool's errand to keep promising affordable housing in a city that's mostly owned by massive corporations and financial institutions.

The more worrying trend is allowing flats to be built for the sole purpose of rent only, meaning they remain a 100% corporate owned asset normalising the concept of making a roof over your head a "subscription".

The further we go down that road, the denser housing will get and there will be a continued decline of green spaces I reckon.

Councils are powerless to stop it because nobody wants to preside over a dead town or city, so they sell out to developers in the hope they can make it as a commuter town or a hospitiality town (i.e you go there to eat, cinema etc).
 
Penfold101 said:
They haven’t closed Joanna’s have they…? :eek:
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No, Downtown and Joanna's are still going strong. It was the Newmarket/Jailhouse (used to love that place) and a couple of shops in the high street and Junner's toy shop, the old 99p shop and the huge furniture place in South Street.
 
article on several housing reforms eg.


The Government has made progress on planning reforms to allow more greenfield development in the shires, but building houses remains a challenge. Construction costs have risen, and many sites have stalled. In our new report Breaking the Bottlenecks we identify five key “anti-supply measures” as policies that fail to meet their aims, create unintended consequences, and are treated differently abroad. Below is a summary of these issues and our proposed reforms.
Minimum Space Standard for One-Bed Flats

Many renters in England, particularly in cities, live in shared housing because living alone is unaffordable. A key reason is that space standards are set too high.

The legal minimum size for a flat is 37m², while the average renter in London can only afford 25m² (29m² nationally). Developers often build to the 50m² standard for couples, meaning most one-bed flats are nearly double what single renters can afford.

This is akin to setting a minimum wage above the average wage. Rather than improving affordability, it stops homes from being built. Reforming the space standard would not affect overcrowding laws but would make solo living more attainable and free up family homes currently used for flatshares.

Proposed reforms: Reduce the minimum to either 25m² (the Japanese standard) or 18m² (the Dutch standard). This would enable developers to build more affordable units and support housebuilding by aligning with what people can afford.
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pastymuncher said:
That is exactly what has happened in Elgin. The town centre is dead thanks to the council's car parking charges and granting permission for out of town retail parks so between Elgin High street and South street there was a huge furniture retailer and our only toy shop which closed long ago and they backed onto what used to be a great bar/club and several retail units all of which were closed. Moray council gave a developer permission to knock them all down to create a massive building site on which they are building several ugly blocks of flats that will look completely out of place with the surrounding area. There is no open spcae for kids to play and there is nowhere near enough parking slots. If that isn't bad enough there is to be a shorter block of flats right in front of the bigger one so anybody who ends up buying one is going to have a very dark flat that never gets any sunlight. The councils excuse for granting permission was that it will keep the street alive.

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Looks like a prison :(
 
18sqm is 200 sqft, that's basically like a chicken coop for humans
crazy!

(i say that as a singapore citizen...3rd in the world for population density :cry: )
 
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jpaul said:
article on several housing reforms eg.
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I don't have an answer, but shrinking the size of the minimum sized flats that can be built i think would be a recipe for disaster. If you could have policy that would dictate a certain amount of green space, and then facility or community space per number of flats, then having a smaller sized flat might be desirable when residents can spend time in other spaces within their building/grounds. The problem is it won't happen that way and will just be an excuse for a property developer to cram in a few more flats per building.
 
This planning bill is an absolute abomination, growth at any cost.

Hagar said:
Ya know so what. We were forced into a terraced house with a yard amongst hundreds of terraced houses with yards, in a town with cotton Mills and coal mines. Nature, we ate it.
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You'd think we could move forward rather than being stuck in the 1970s.
 
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200sols said:
This planning bill is an absolute abomination, growth at any cost.


You'd think we could move forward rather than being stuck in the 1970s.
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I was a little tongue in cheek but many towns and cities are like that. They demolished the worst back to backs and slums taking many half decent streets with them but a lot of 1900 workers cottages still survive, well built and upgradeable but nary a sign of greenfields unless you walk, cycle or drive.

Or get the bus.
 
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I actually like how some countries allow 'tiny homes' and even homes made out of shipping containers. I actually think quite a few people starting out (or even downsizing) would be quite happy living in one. But it's the UK, so people are expected to sell their soul for 25-30 years to get a home made of bricks, or face renting for life at £lol.
 
When I was a kid we lived in a 2 bedroom terraced house that had no heating apart from a coal fire in the living room, no hot water, no bathroom, no shower until dad bought a pump up one used for camping and a outside toilet. We lived in that house until 1981 when we finally got a council house. We would have stayed put but the landlord wouldn't let dad do anything to the house and he wouldn't let him buy it. Dad worked every waking hour to give us a life but still couldn't afford a mortgage. I would never want to live through that again but at least that house had bigger rooms than the rabbit hutches they are building today.
 
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