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\'One Size Fits All\' Housing Policy Fails to Provide Choice for Homebuyers

1st November 2005 | back to article listings BACK    print this article PRINT

The Government’s Policy Planning Guidelines 3 (PPG3) have distorted the housing mix in the UK too heavily in favour of apartments and left homebuyers with limited choice reports Linden Homes. Currently 70% of Linden’s units are apartments, which is a complete reversal to five years ago when it built 70% houses and just 30% apartments.

While it is important to protect the countryside and make the most of the land available for development, balancing the supply of flats and houses is essential rather than insisting on a ‘one size fits all’ policy that fails to provide enough choice for purchasers. A MORI poll carried out earlier this year found that most Britons aspire to live in detached houses. In an effort to respond to this demand housebuilders are being forced to build three-storey townhouses that are more acceptable to planners than their detached, two-storey counterparts, but not always ideal for those with young children.

For the first time, the building of flats has overtaken the construction of houses across the country. More than 40% of all private new housing registrations with NHBC are now flats, with detached houses making up only about a quarter, according to the Homebuilders Federation.

Philip Davies, Chief Executive of Linden Homes comments:

“There is a considerable gap between what homebuyers want to buy and properties that planners are allowing to be built. This is distorting the market and preventing housebuilders responding to a market they know and understand.

“Generally people only want to live in apartments for a short while before moving into houses in the suburbs and beyond in search of somewhere suitable to raise a family. This is working against the Government’s objective of encouraging people out of their cars by forcing them to move beyond the cities and towns in search of a house.”
-ENDS-

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