Local case studies

Two local case studies are introduced– one from Oxford and the other from Barking and Dagenham in London - of the influence of the finance-housebuilding sector reaching down to the level of day to day planning decisions made by local authorities, making planning for local communities a huge struggle which local authorities and communities often end up losing. The chapter draws conclusions from the case studies about the power of landowners, and the loss of local accountability and control that local communities have over planning and housing in their localities.

The housebuilders and affordable housing

This chapter investigates the long running battle between communities and developers/landowners over so called planning obligations particularly to build affordable housing. It explores the huge windfall gains landowners and developers make from obtaining planning consents compared with the tiny fraction of land value that is returned to the community in the form of planning obligations. The chapter also looks at how developers exploit loopholes in legislation and avoid policies of tenure mix that reduce the value of the homes they build. The chapter argues that the planning obligations system has failed.

Postscript

The property lobby was written during the political storm over Brexit and before the General Election of 2019 was called. Now that the Election has happened and Brexit is underway, a postscript is called for. What if anything will these changes mean for the property lobby?...

The 2008 financial crash continues

The 2008 Crash and its continuing aftermath have had a lasting impact on the scale and persistence of the housing crisis. The chapter explains that the Crash was largely caused by over lending to residential property in the US but the contagion spread to the UK banking system. It argues that the fall out continues to affect the market in a number of ways notably credit policies housing investment and cut backs in public expenditure. The banking system and the property market were bailed out and the austerity decade has reduced the capacity and ability of local government to build social housing or compensate for the fall in private sector house building. It is argued that the UK housing market is particularly subject to boom and bust fuelled by speculation and overseas investment yet the planners were scapegoated by the Treasury for the collapse on house building after 2008.

The property lobby

The focus of this chapter is the major organised lobby groups in the property market and their influence on Government policy. The objectives and activities of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), the Home Builders Federation, UK Finance, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and others are examined. The chapter also covers the close relationship of the Conservative Party to the land and property market and the impact of the lobbying of local councillors by developers and the revolving door between council officers and developers and property consultants. Property lobby organisations have become have become the first port of call for Government and civil servants in housing and planning policy development and as such are as a major obstacle to change.

Financing housing investment

This chapter looks at the overburdening presence of property and housing finance in the UK economy. It focuses on the economic instability created by mortgage dependency. This is a critical context for understanding the role of Government in creating barriers to resolving the housing crisis though its programme of Quantitative Easing, encouragement of Real Estate Investment Trusts, and by offering tax and residence advantages for overseas investors in UK property. It also explores the rise of investor interest in Build to Rent.

How the social and affordable housing sectors got swallowed

Thus chapter argues that the social and affordable housing sector which began as a charitable movement for housing the poor has become increasingly financialised and swallowed up by the finance-housebuilding complex, creating a barrier to a coherent political movement for social housing and reform. Using examples from estate regeneration in London, the chapter describes the increasingly close collaboration between housing associations councils, private developers and private finance to the detriment of social housing and community cohesion. It provides examples of housing associations caught up in damaging financial deals and shows how these deals shut out local scrutiny. It asks whether recent Government softening of their approach to social housing means that financialisation is over

The housebuilding business

This chapter describes the rise of the volume housebuilders in the UK. It interrogates their business model highlighting the key factors such as profits and land valuations on which developers and landowners seek support, and usually get it, from Government. The land banking practices of the housebuilders are give particular attention. The chapter challenges official reviews of the housebuilding sector which have cleared it of land hoarding and forming cartels to keep up prices.

The housing shortage

This chapter explains how the housing shortage has become a numbers game played by Government. Rather than focusing on the fundamental housing crisis issues of affordability, quality and good planning, it has made the supply of private housing numbers the key objective, even though in this objective it has failed. Supported by data on declining affordability, and spiraling rents and prices, the chapter argues that the diversity and affordability of supply is nowhere near matching the diversity of need. The social housing stock has fallen sharply because of Right to Buy and Buy to Let and lack of new social house building. The concept of affordable housing has become meaningless because of the way Government has defined it.

The finance–housebuilding complex

This chapter introduces the main themes and arguments of the book. It asks why despite innumerable reports and studies and Government announcements over decades the housing crisis continues and is getting worse and more intractable. What are the main blockages to resolving the housing crisis? Why are there housing shortages when Government has poured billions of subsidies into the volume housebuilding sector? The chapter highlights the emergence of the ‘finance-housebuilding complex’ and its role in perpetuating the crisis. It explains how the social and affordable housing providers have become financialised, entangled in property development deals to the detriment of local communities. Local residents groups have begun to provide housing for themselves through community land trusts and co-ops but without reforms of the land, housing and planning system at a national level, the housing crisis cannot to resolved.