A YouGov survey commissioned by the New Homes Marketing Board (NHMB) has revealed that more than eight in ten people (81 per cent) believe Britain needs more housing for sale and rent, especially affordable homes for first-time buyers. But it also shows that far fewer people – just 50 per cent – would welcome more homes of all types in their own immediate neighbourhoods.
A 2007 survey carried out for the NHMB showed a similarly high number of respondents (78 per cent) agreeing that the availability of new homes affordable to first-time buyers was important to the well-being of their local communities. But at that time, the number of people saying they would actively support homes suitable for first-time buyers in their immediate neighbourhood was significantly higher, at 58 per cent.
The new YouGov survey showed considerable public understanding of Britain’s housing problems. Only 20 per cent of respondents thought the nation had enough homes to cope with its growing population, while 81 per cent agreed that we need more homes of all types for sale and rent, especially housing that is affordable to first-time buyers.
Over two-thirds (69 per cent) agreed that the planning system should be streamlined and speeded-up to enable more and better affordable housing to be built and, crucially, 68 per cent said local communities should accept their share of responsibility for the provision of adequate and affordable new housing.
However, when asked if they would be prepared to accept more housing of all types in their ‘immediate neighbourhood’ only 40 per cent said they agreed, with a further 10 per cent saying they ‘strongly agreed.’ The other half either disagreed (39 per cent) or didn’t know (11 per cent).
CPRE, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, reports that:
The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment found 82 per cent of new housing built over the last five years failing to measure up on design quality. Twenty nine per cent is assessed as poor and 53 per cent as average. The leading UK housebuilders held around 240,000 housing plots with full or outline planning permission in 1998. This figure rose by 44% to 341,500 plots in 2005. However, in 2008/09 271,947 plots were owned and controlled by these housebuilders. This decline is probably mostly attributable to the financial downturn.
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