Housing crisis -

[observer]

With three quarters of middle income youngsters priced out of the home ownership market and throwing their money away on ever rising rents; we're now being told that over 4,000 planning permissions haven't been taken up by developers, thus starving supply and increasing prices.   Unfortunately we have a Gov that believes in a home owning democracy, but can't take the necessary action to achieve it - which is, to make housing more affordable by radically boosting supply.   Clearly the private sector developers won't do it, as cheaper housing will retard their profits.  Sadly, the solution goes against the grain of their political dogma, which is to radically increase supply at the bottom end of the market by building cheap rented (Council) housing, to reduce demand and thus reduce price inflation throughout the market.  So it would seem this Gov are prisoners of their own dogma.      

[asperity]

So are we to assume from this that the property developers, as well as sitting on 4000 sites with planning permission, are paying hundreds (if not thousands) of building tradesmen to sit at home twiddling their thumbs. Or perhaps they've all gone home to Poland

[observer]

Think you've answered your own question !    

[asperity]

Which answer do you think is correct Obs, the developers paying tradesmen to sit at home doing nothing, or Polish tradesmen going home? Or perhaps neither of them, the correct answer being, perhaps, that while the land and planning permission is there the materials and labour are not. You can't train people to build houses/ high rise flats etc overnight.

[observer]

I don't think "developers" pay "tradesmen", they pay contractors, as and when they require them. Their business is making money, and if reduced supply produces increased prices, it also produces increased profits. So, it's in their financial interest to restrict supply.  As for the workforce,  the private sector throughout hasn't recruited and trained sufficient indigenous labour in any case, and taken the lazy (and cheaper) option of using off the shelf, migrant labour, which can be used or not used to suit their fiscal ambitions. This is a simple supply V demand equation, which will only be resolved by a massive investment in supply in order to reduce demand and thus prices.       

[asperity]

So who is responsible for ensuring there are sufficient tradesmen available to do the work, the developers or some unseen "agency"? The government perhaps? Government which, for decades, has proved itself inefficient at best in doing anything worthwhile.

[Davy51]

Which means we should see the return of the industry training schemes  that disappeared years ago & created a perceived need for migrant labour due to the lack of indigenous  industrial skills.

I won't hold my breath till that happens though.

[Togger1]

1 hour ago, Davy51 said:

 

I won't hold my breath till that happens though.

Aw at least give it a try

[observer]

1 hour ago, asperity said:

So who is responsible for ensuring there are sufficient tradesmen available to do the work, the developers or some unseen "agency"? The government perhaps? Government which, for decades, has proved itself inefficient at best in doing anything worthwhile.

In the past even small firms could take on apprentices, backed up by FE colleges, but we went through a period with Bliar, where we had an obsession with University entrance, with all sorts of mickey mouse degrees on offer, producing non-vocational degrees.  It not rocket science to suggest, that the needs of the economy, as identified by both Gov and private sector employers, should provide a steady recruitment stream for the projected skills sets required by our economy.  But, getting back to "developers";  they tend to originate the ideas and plans for development, secure the land and planning permissions etc; then contract in the building firms large and small to carry out the work, so have no direct concerns for recruitment and training.  Their task is basically speculative, and fiscally motivated; if they purchase land for development and secure planning permission, it's value automatically increases, with price inflation in the market, value increases even further; so land banking can be an attractive option, which further restricts supply and adds to price inflation.    So supply has to be increased, and the only way to do that is by Gov or Local Gov being allowed to radically increase supply by building Council Housing, thus reducing demand, and thus price inflation throughout the market, for both owners and renters.    

[asperity]

All well and good Obs, but it doesn't answer the question of where are all the tradesmen coming from, assuming they aren't being paid by someone to sit at home twiddling their thumbs. It's all very interesting that things were different before Blair came along and changed the education landscape, but we are where we are and I can't see government doing anything to turn the clock back. You can imagine the howls that would go up from the usual suspects if government were to stipulate that only the brightest children could go to university and the rest would have to be apprentices to trades.

[observer]

Well actually Asp;  listening to relevant Ministers that seems to be the way they are talking, but we've of course got to await any action.   Workers don't get paid for sitting at home and twiddling their thumbs, they get laid off, as with many engaged on Carrillion contracts.   Employers have access to skills from all over the world, so training indigenous labour falls by the wayside, when you can import off the shelf skills from abroad.