This #weekendft covers the effect of rising mortgage rates on house building falls but barely mentions the catastrophic state of our planning system, which has led to at least one of my clients deciding that the risks of holding land and committing more money in pursuing SME house building business without clear Central Government #planningpolicy are too great a bet to continue to make coupled with the UK economic outlook so difficult to read. Subsequently, many jobs have been lost.
Unlike the commercial property market, where demand for funding developments has softened amongst investors, forcing developers to delay their planning process to trigger a start date, the article comments that ‘… mortgage approvals for June showed a surprising uptick, despite the highest interest rate for 15 years”
The #cabinetoffice continues to show a woeful lack of understanding and under qualification in overestimating what is possible in the construction industry (which contributes £110bn and 7% of GDP with the majority of output coming from the private sector) without a clear policy and consistency and which is not fettered by either local self-interest or #workingpractices. Expect more hollow promises to voters in the coming months.
