So how better to see out 2013 than with a pop at the Sunday Times?  I’ve only just got round to reading the last edition of 2013 (29-12), so initially missed the article on page 16 ("Nearly half of new homes are built on greenfield sites”).

I’m sure the journalist means well, but as statements in the bleeding obvious go, it takes some beating.  Guess what – there are now less homes being built on brownfield sites than in 2008.  Of course, the paper holds the Government to account (via the NPPF) for this phenomena – and the CPRE wouldn’t be doing their job if they didn’t join the bandwagon – but that would be like blaming politicians for UK coal and North Sea oil running out.

Funnily enough, brownfield sites are a finite resource; and we’ve spent fifteen years relaying heavily on them, at times, to the virtual moratorium on greenfield development.  It’s been, in some respects, a successful approach (I’ll ignore the rampant under provision of housebuilding and property price inflation), but the obvious sites have now been taken.

This is an amended version of a letter that appeared in the Evening Standard on 21st August 2013: http://www.iceniprojects.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/We-need-more-than-Help-to-Buy.pdf

Help to Buy is a means to an end; but it is further exposing underlying problems in our ability to deliver the right homes, in the right locations, expeditiously and cost-effectively.

A contractor client of mine recently remarked that the residential side of the construction industry has gone through the roof post-Help to Buy. However, since the credit crunch, not only has the industry lost skilled labour, it has lost the factories and production lines to deliver raw material.  As a consequence, not only is is extremely difficult to acquire what might be regarded as elementary products (facing bricks, breeze blocks etc), basic supply and demand economics is pushing the price up.  Another client was lamenting the fact that the cost of paint required to complete an executive residence has increased since 2008 by 30%.  These pressures will be felt across the housing spectrum, and not simply the top end.