Legal and General given go ahead for new Modular Homes development.

By Jonathan Amos on the

  A leading insurance group has received planning consent to build what will be one of Britain’s biggest housing projects made up of homes built almost entirely in a factory. The 154-home scheme in Selby, North Yorkshire, will be the first full modular housing development delivered by Legal & General, from buying the land through to design and construction. Casting aside years of scepticism about the quality of prefabricated homes, the insurer launched its modular housing business four years ago. It set up a factory in Sherburn in Elmet, near Leeds, but output has been slow owing to early design problems that have been fixed since, according to L&G. Each...

Make Help to Buy permanent

By Jonathan Amos on the

Make Help to Buy permanent, says housebuilder Redrow after record profits Redrow entered the current financial year with a strong order book of £1.14 billion in sales, £110 million higher than last year The Help to Buy scheme should become a permanent part of the property market, one of Britain’s biggest housebuilders claimed yesterday as it revealed a record set of profits. Redrow said that builders would not be producing homes at the same pace without the government-backed programme. Steve Morgan, chairman and founder of the FTSE 250 company, said: “If it ain’t broke, why fix it? We have a phenomenal housing shortage in this country and there have been houses...

Incentives for older home owners to sell up larger homes.

By Jonathan Amos on the

PENSIONERS will be given incentives to downsize from largely empty family homes to flats and bungalows as part of measures to ease the housing crisis. Sajid Javid, the Communities Secretary, will set out plans to tackle the chronic shortage of housing in a White Paper later this month. Under the plans, which are still being finalised, the Government could give pensioners help with moving costs or an exemption on stamp duty to encourage them to move. Ministers are hoping the measures will encourage older people to move out of larger homes to make space for younger families. Research suggests this could release hundreds of thousands of homes on to the market. The...

High time for high-rise, or a grab for green belt? Solving the affordability crisis is key

By Jonathan Amos on the

  With the number of home buyers rapidly falling, the Government must take action, writes Anna White The number of homes available for sale in estate agents has been steadily declining . Britain’s broken housing market has become a national problem. The UK now has the fourth-lowest level of home ownership in the European Union, with the number of owner-occupiers aged between 25 and 34 falling from 2m in 2001 to 1.3m last year. Rapid urbanisation and a burgeoning population, combined with a 30-year failure to build enough homes, has rendered cities such as London, Edinburgh, Bristol and Oxford as no-buy zones for many. Former chancellor George Osborne inadvertently promised a...