Category Archives: Property Investor Economics

Post-Brexit Economic Development and Housing Planning (Planning Resource Event) – Part 2

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Part 2 – Focus on Post-Brexit Planning and Housing Supply The second part of the late-2016 Planning Resource event (see part 1 here) addressed a number of topics ranging from the “Brexit effect” on migration and household composition, infrastructure development and the future of planning through to innovative Housing Association-led development models and how London can overcome its affordable housing delivery challenges.  The afternoon was chaired by Duncan Sutherland, regeneration director at Sigma Capital Group Plc – a company at the forefront of the Private Rented Sector (PRS), working with local government to deploy an innovative £1 billion Sharia compliant fund to build 10,000 family houses. Starting with a presentation entitled “Calculating housing need in a post-Brexit period: What Brexit means for plan-making”, James Donagh, Director at Barton Willmore explored how future migration could affect the pace of development growth.... [Read More]

Post-Brexit Economic Development and Housing Planning (Planning Resource Event) – Part 1

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This and the following post aim to provide a broad synopsis of a Planning Resource event held towards the end of 2016.  I have split the content into two parts, the first covering the morning´s discussion on the wider implications of the Brexit decision on the UK economy, as a precursor to the afternoon´s conversations on planning for housing. Part 1 – Focus on Post-Brexit Economic Development   Published at the start of January 2017, perhaps facetiously, it´s worth caveating that there is a certain risk that much of the following write-up could well be obsolete at the time of reading given the political ambiguity and lack of specifics regarding the UK´s exit from European Union.  Such uncertainty is likely to remain, at the very least, until the triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and formal talks start... [Read More]

“Rentplus” – Tackling the Affordable Housing Dilemma

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It would fair to assume that much of the property industry was positive about last week´s Autumn Statement, welcoming the range of proposed measures such as the acceleration of housebuilding on public land, relaxing restrictions on grant funding as well as the continuation of right to buy extensions for social tenants and the Help to Buy Equity / ISA schemes.  As exemplified by recent DCLG data, in a housing market that is evidently failing to cater to all sections of society, many argued that the government had little choice but to cave into the rising tide of social pressure and support a more universal building cycle. £1.4 billion will therefore be used to initiate 40,000 housing units by 2020-21 alongside a £2.3 billion fund to deliver infrastructure for up to 100,000 new homes in “areas of high demand”.  In addition to plans... [Read More]