Forum Topic

Estate Agents are upbeat but will the new towers planned have impact on value

It's good to see the local estate agents being upbeat on prices and talking the area up.However, do we think all the new flats being planned and Ealing Council's attempts to railroad everything through under the 'draft' London plan will have an impact on prices?  Are we not going to see a glut of 2 bedroom flats?  Will it be a race to the bottom on value?  Do we need this many properties now there will be a trend for people moving out of London?  I am very worried over the Labour Council's views on development and the impact it will have on quality of life maybe that will have an impact too on Ealing's desirability as a place to live?

Steve Young ● 1775d15 Comments

Ultimately the problem is that this government absolutely refuses to consider development in the green belt. That doesn't mean that beauty spots will be targeted other but that for the area surrounding London it is much harder to get planning permission.  Therefore if housing targets are to be met this has to be done in London which is why the government has given money to the Mayor to press ahead with this and given him targets that he has to reach. This has led to a crude numbers game where it is the number of units built rather than their suitability that matters. Ealing has jumped on board with alacrity so must share the blame for the damage being done but the root cause is government policy.

Christine Mulligan ● 1763d

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jun/28/revealed-developers-backed-by-boris-johnson-when-london-mayor-donate-almost-1m-to-tories

Philippa Bond ● 1764d

And there I was thinking that it is the pursuit of targets before anything else.Where are Ealing sending its residents that it can't house?https://www.theguardian.com/careers/2020/jun/23/buildings-are-not-just-an-excuse-to-pour-concrete-how-women-are-transforming-the-construction-industry?

Philippa Bond ● 1765d

Hear, hear.But, of course, The Party comes before The People.With the truly appalling Local Labour Party anyway.

Rosco White ● 1766d

Ella Mai, i am sorry you are wrong. Ealing can choose to reject central government policy. That is what the Planning Committee is about, its quasi-legal status means that it does have are political function as well as a legal one. It is just that most of the councillors on that committee reject the wishes of the electorate that put them there. What is more, the actions of Cummings as vaidated by one no less than the Prime Minister of this country Boris Johnson show that Government Policy is just that, policy, anyone can rightly and properly ignore it if it is inconvenient to them or they think that it is wrong without fear of reprisal. What we need is some honourable councillors who will vote in a way that reflects what their voters (and their political parties at a political level in some cases as well) say. If their voters and parties are against tower blocks, then they should vote accordingly, that is their role and their mandate, they are not there to be lawyers to interpret government policy they are there to convey their electors wishes and their mandate in the local Council

Mark Julian Raymond ● 1766d

We do not have to say 'Yes' to government policy. Reject it. It would create some extra white collar jobs for lawyers, paralegals, and the like, in the ensuing battle. Local democratic action?

Mark Julian Raymond ● 1766d

Steve, you are wrong, the high density, large numbers are Central Government Policy via the National Planning Policy Framework. Ealing has no choice on numbers but can choose where it wants to build new developments and how high to build them.

Ella Mai Rhead ● 1766d

With the Grenfell enquiry stopped I think we should be looking at all the safety regulations re high rise buildings in other countries since we seem to be totally incapable here to deal with it.We have both a Fire Bill and a Building Bill expected to progress through Parliament.  You have to wonder what the rush is to push everything through planning...https://environmentjournal.online/articles/why-zero-carbon-homes-must-lead-the-green-recovery-from-covid-19/Why can't LBE build something like the award winning Norwich social housing?  Oh I forgot Councils aren't allowed to borrow money to build.  No sooner had this development won the award the Govt changed the rules to make it difficult for anyone to follow suit.https://www.dezeen.com/2019/10/08/stirling-prize-2019-winner-goldsmith-street-social-housing/#

Philippa Bond ● 1766d

Not enough homes have been built for years.  If we object to everything how will there be enough homes?  What is happening now is that developers are calling the tune.  Development is costly, a costly lottery.  Developers have managed to wriggle out of paying Section 106 or CIL. The lower cost of 'affordable' homes just gets added to the other homes making them more expensive.The Mayor is given money by Central Government and is expected to build homes - lots of homes.  Why don't you think that the developers are Tories?

Philippa Bond ● 1766d

And now we are starting to hear that the reason for certain ethnic groups being more susceptible to the ravages of Covid19 is the overdense living conditions many live in. It's also becoming apparent in other countries as well. Communal living and apartment blocks.And what are they trying to do here?  ~cram as many into boxes into the smallest spaces possible and call it social housing or Modern Living.Never mind Statues, this is what people should not be allowing to happen and who is behind it. The Mayor and his political and developer followers.That's the true racism of today. Poverty and poor planning.We have to have new towns of great quality, accessible with quality work options and quality of life.We have to look back over 80- years since this was actually achieved, not much since has worked at all.

Raymond Havelock ● 1771d

I'm sorry Phillipa you are wrong on this, this is very much a Labour policy in London. The 'draft' London plan is being rail-roaded by Sadiq Khan and removes density matrix that have been around since planning began to stop precisely the type of overdevelopment being highlight by the Stop The Towers group at West Ealing station.

Steve Young ● 1771d

Councils need to be free to borrow for and to build housing on a large scale which is the only genuine solution to the affordable housing crisis.  In this case Councils could abandon the affordable housing requirement for private development and in that case private developers could build for their market without the additional cost of providing for affordable housing which has been inadequate in both scale and location and has helped to inflate the average cost of housing throughout.The Council are simply reacting to Central Government policies which are wrong-headed and leading to unsympathetic development across the country, high construction costs, high purchase costs and low output.

Philippa Bond ● 1773d

And since when do we believe what estate agents say? This is a total non-story, on re-opening estate agents have had a few calls from bored people with cabin fever looking for a distraction or sozing the market up to sell (see what properties going up for sale are like). Once the furloughs and mortgage holidays end it will all change markedly.

Mark Julian Raymond ● 1774d

as people want gardens after the lockdown we should be looking forward in that way. but affordable rental housing stock is the cornerstone of getting things moving. house prices are a double edged sword. some of us have benefited from being able to sell up and downsize but the reality for younger people in a volatile and difficult jobs market will be whether they can get a decent rental. lots more social rent properties would provide jobs in construction and benefit people in general. yes let developers have more scope to build houses but not with dodgy developments in back gardens

Peter Chadburn ● 1774d

That's the dilemma. The economy needs lots of construction activity to boost growth but building lots of flats could depress prices which will make them hard to sell and create a negative equity which will depress demand. It will be an incredibly difficult balancing act and, aside from Rishi Sunak, I don't see anybody in the cabinet with the qualities to pull it off.Personally I'd like to see all 'affordability' quotas abandoned and councils allowed to use capital receipts to build genuine social housing. Then developers would be free to design and build what they believe is likely to sell and wouldn't be under such pressure to maximise the number of units on each site which has led to all these massive tower blocks.

Gordon Southwell ● 1774d