I miss the good old days of George Osborne as
Chancellor, with his hardhat and hi-vis jacket. He must have visited every new
home building site in the UK with his trademark attire! For the last few years,
the nearest Philip Hammond got to donning a ‘Bob the Builder’ outfit was at his
grandchild’s birthday party. However, with what appears to be a change in focus
by the Tories to ensure they get back in power in 2022, they appear to have
fallen in love with house building again with the Chancellor’s promise to create
300,000 new households in a year.
Nationally, the number of new homes created has
topped 217,344 in the last year, the highest since the financial crash of
2007/8. Looking closer to home: in total there were 492 ‘net additional
dwellings’ in the last 12 months in the Warrington Borough Council area, a small
increase of 31% on the 2010 figure.
The figures show that 95% of this additional
housing was down to new build properties. In total, there were 469 new
dwellings built over the last year in Warrington. In addition, there were 52 additional
dwellings created from converting commercial or office buildings into
residential property.
While these all added to the total housing stock in the Warrington
area, there were 29 demolitions to take into account.
Net additional dwellings in Warrington
in the last 12 months
|
||||
New build
|
Conversions
|
Change of use
|
Demolitions
|
Net Additions
|
469
|
0
|
52
|
-29
|
492
|
I was encouraged to see some of the new
households in the Warrington area had come from a change of use. The planning
laws were changed a few years back so that, in certain circumstances, owners of
properties didn’t need planning permission to change office space in to
residential use.
With the scarcity of building land available locally
(or the builders being very slow to build on what they have, for fear of flooding
the market), it was pleasing to see the number of developers that had
reutilised vacant office space into residential homes in the local council
area. Converting offices and shops to residential use will be vital in helping to
solve the Warrington housing crisis especially, as you
can see on the graph, that the level of building has hardly been spectacular
over the last seven years!
Now we have had the autumn budget, Theresa May and Philip Hammond have set out their stall with housing as their key focus. I was glad to see the Government introducing a variety of changes to improve housing, including more funding for the supply side and an injection of urgency into the planning system.
The biggest question is, just where are the
Government going to build all these new houses? Maybe a topic for a future
article?
Back to the main point though and the focus on
the housing market by the Tory’s is good news for all homeowners and buy to let
landlords, as it will encourage more fluidity in the market in the longer term,
sharing the wealth and benefits of homeownership for all. However, in the short
term, demand still outstrips supply for homes and that will mean continued
upward pressures on rents for tenants.
Email me on manoj@hamletwarrington.co.uk or call on 01925 235338. If you are in the area, feel free to pop into the office – we are based on G5, Warrington Business Park, Long Lane, WA2 8TX. There is plenty of free parking and the kettle is always on.
Don't forget to visit the links below to view back dated deals and Warrington Property News.
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