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Value of UK farmland could double in five years
2009-10-12
	The surge in pricing is set to be driven by a shortage of quality farmland as the global population expands and demand for food increases. These factors have already helped farmland avoid the worst effects of the financial crisis. Despite the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, before the end of the year land values are in line to recoup the 5.5pc falls seen after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Farmers have been seeking to expand their land holdings as their incomes grow, while lifestyle buyers and investors are increasingly attracted to the solid returns of rural Britain as credit becomes more available.
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Alistair Darling's £1bn budget rescue plan for the housing market
2009-04-21
	Alistair Darling will unveil an emergency £1bn package for Britain's housing market tomorrow with a fund to build council houses, extend the stamp duty holiday on buying, and restart work on projects mothballed during the recession. Amid speculation last night that the chancellor plans to restrict tax relief on pension contributions in order to fund a modest overall boost to growth, government sources said a key part of the package would be a five-point programme to build homes and support property owners.
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Affordable homes to be built on greenbelt in countryside
2009-03-25
	Thousands of homes could be built on greenfield sites around the countryside, including in national parks, after the Government announced new plans to ease the rural housing crisis. The shortage of affordable homes in beautiful areas is causing anger among local communities, with second homes coming under attack. In a report on housing in rural communities, Liberal Democrat MP Matthew Taylor warned dozens of picturesque villages are in danger of dying out because of the problem. However the Government response published yesterday stopped short of restricting the growth of second homes and holiday lets in rural areas. Instead Margaret Beckett, the housing minister, announced a range of measures to encourage local authorities to build more affordable homes. This includes making more "exception" sites on greenbelt or other restricted land available for affordable homes.
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Mayor's 'rent to buy' house plan
2009-03-03
	A £135m plan for subsidised housing to get middle-income Londoners on the housing ladder has been outlined by the city's mayor Boris Johnson. About 3,000 new homes would be made available to tenants on subsidised rents under the proposals. After six months tenants would have the opportunity to buy their property, with 5% subtracted from the house price. But homeless charity Shelter said extra social housing for rent was needed more urgently than more houses for sale. The mayor has pledged to build 50,000 affordable new homes by 2011.
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UK land defies the global property downturn
2008-12-19
	For investors buying agricultural land in the UK has been the success story of 2008 as it has been resilient to the property downturn. As the property market declined and residential development land values plummeted, agricultural land ends the year up 21.5% on 2007 values, according to research by Savills. Analysis by Savills, tracking values back to 1970, clearly shows that agricultural land values are consistently more closely aligned to wheat prices than the broader economy. After a period of volatility this year, wheat prices are expected to rise in 2009, thus providing a good cushion for agricultural land values, analysts said.
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Immigration to make Britain Europe’s most crowded nation
2008-08-27
	Britain is set to become Europe’s most highly populated nation within two generations, driven by immigration. Forecasts published by the European Commission suggest that Britain will overtake Germany within 50 years as the population rises from 60.9 million today to 77 million. The projected 25 per cent increase triggered renewed calls for the Government to stem the flow of immigration, which has surged since Labour came to power 11 years ago. Increasing population, together with a rise in the number of elderly people, will heap further pressure on public services, particular the NHS.
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Build new homes on green belt, says Policy Exchange think tank
2008-08-22
	The green belt is "not sacred" and should be built on to allow more affordable housing, a think tank has said. Policy Exchange said even the term itself is misleading and the Government should tackle the "myth" that land is a scarce resource in England. It said the debate around the green belt should be conducted in a "less emotional" tone and local communities should be given more power to decide where homes are built. Policy Exchange said most people were unaware that 90 per cent of England is undeveloped.
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Farmers ready to cash in on soaring land prices - The Times
2008-07-28
	Farmland prices have risen by 50 per cent over the past year to reach a record high, according to the latest market survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Some farmers are taking the opportunity to sell up and retire, particularly those feeling the squeeze from the rising cost of fuel, fertilisers and energy. Cashing in is a serious option for those who are unable to operate at a profit. The fastest rise in prices since the survey began 13 years ago was in the first six months of this year, when the average price per hectare rose from £10,439 to £12,965. Arable land rose from £10,439 to £14,453 and grazing land from £9,929 £11,477.
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Forget falling house prices - land is booming just like oil
2008-06-26
	Buy land, they're not making it any more - that was the advice of Mark Twain more than 100 years ago, and it still looks pretty sound today. The value of houses, offices, shops and malls may be in freefall but farmland is soaring as the high price of wheat bolsters demand. Figures from land agent Savills today showed the price of English farmland has risen by a staggering 30% since December, and is now nearly 50% higher than in June last year. It is double what it was three years ago. Not even at the height of the property boom were house prices rising that fast, and experts reckon land will go up another 15% by the end of the year - slower growth than before but not to be sniffed at.
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Fields of gold: Investors discover lucrative haven in Britain's farmland - The Independant
2008-04-17
	The price of farmland is rising at its fastest rate for more than 30 years as wealthy city dwellers and overseas buyers seek a slice of idyllic rural England and jittery investors rush to move their money out of stocks and shares because of the global credit crunch. In contrast to falling residential and commercial property values, the average price of farmland rose by more than 10 per cent in the first quarter of 2008, according to a study of agricultural property sales which will be published this month. Arable land, in particular, has become so profitable that its average price has soared from £4,000 an acre in January last year to £5,500 an acre today.
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Housing plan 'will create sprawl' - BBC
2007-08-29
	Government plans to build three million new homes by 2020 will create an "unsustainable urban sprawl ", the Tories have warned. Shadow Planning Minister Jacqui Lait said promises not to construct houses on Green land were now "worthless". the claim comes as a panel recommends the building of 32,000 new homes a year in sounth-east England. But the government promised the green belt would continue to have "robust protections" from future developments.
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Is Brown's plan for 3 million new homes by 2020 feasible? - Building
2007-07-12
	About 1.7 million council homes have been sold off in the last 27 years. Only 700,000 have been built to replace them, while the population grows along with the cost of home ownership. It's no surprise then that prime minister Gordon Brown has made housebuilding his top priority, and he announced this week a Labour party plan to increase delivery of new homes in England and Wales from 200,000 to 240,000 per year over the next nine years. But we're currently straining to meet the 200,000 mark, so is his target of 3 million new homes in the next 12 years a realistic one?
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Brown: Three million new homes by 2020 - Telegraph
2007-07-12
	A new drive to build three million new homes by 2020 was announced by Gordon Brown today as he put tackling the housing shortage at the top of his political agenda. In a Commons statement foreshadowing his first Queen's Speech as Prime Minister, he promised measures to overhaul the planning system and to encourage local authorities to provide more affordable housing. Mr Brown said he would make new house building a "national priority" - as it was in the interwar years and the 1950s. In total, three million new homes would be built by 2020 - up 250,000 from the previous target, he said.
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Brown pledges three million new homes by 2020 - The Times
2007-07-11
	Gordon Brown announced plans to tackle Britain's chronic shortage of affordable housing today with a pledge to build three million new homes by 2020. In an unprecedented move designed to maintain the momentum of his first two weeks in office, the Prime Minister broke with tradition and revealed most of the Bills that the Queen would normally announce at the State Opening of Parliament in the autumn. Of the 23 Bills and draft Bills announced today, three were put forward in a bid to tackle the affordable homes crisis.
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A goldmine in the back garden - Telegraph
2005-11-02
	A clever development deal on her house and plot has given a widow the chance to realise a life-long ambition, writes Caroline McGhie There is a spring in the step of Mrs Margaret Jackson-Fielden. She may be 75 years old and recently widowed, but her life is full of good things to come. "I plan to see all the great opera houses of the world," she says. With twinkling blue eyes she surveys the source of her good fortune: the rattling Victorian edifice which was her family home for 43 years has become a building site.
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East is Eden - Telegraph
2005-06-27
	Flint cottages, sand dunes and acres of open space are luring more and more buyers to East Anglia. Caroline McGhie reports on the region's startling rise Rosy lobsters are piled up in the fish shop, small boys dangle their lines in the creek to catch crabs, and boats slide out at high tide to take visitors to the seal colony on the sandbanks. This, believe it or not, is a hotspot in what has been identified as the fastest-growing region in the country over the next five years. East Anglia may have been left behind for decades, but now it is destined for the fast lane.
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Warning over green belt 'hunger' - BBC
2005-06-16
	The president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has warned the government is "nibbling hungrily" at England's green belt. Sir Max Hastings said he fears green fields will soon be concreted over as developers vie for what is left. He told the CPRE annual meeting in London that the green belt is under increasing threat from building sprawl. The government said it is committed to maintaining and increasing the green belt in all regions. Sir Max said: "Speculators are selling plots within green belt land, holding out to buyers the prospect that a government which is already nibbling hungrily at the green belt in several areas will soon allow planning consents to be given in others.
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Decision day on wetland threat - BBC
2005-05-18
	Land next to an important natural habitat could lose its green belt status allowing new homes to be built. Councillors are due to meet to decide the fate of Flitwick Moor, said by environmentalists to be one of the most important wetlands in Bedfordshire. It is home to an ecosystem of bog moss, woods, rare plants, insects and birds.
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Wedgwood submits plan for hotel - BBC
2005-05-06
	Plans by Wedgwood to build a multi-million pound hotel on green belt land in north Staffordshire are likely to be approved, it has emerged. The pottery company said the hotel, proposed to be built in Barlaston, would create more than 100 jobs. The submitted planning application is for a 90 bedroom hotel. But concerns over the green belt land have been raised while Barlaston Parish Council is said to be concerned about extra traffic. But investment group, Instaffs, and the North Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce say they support the plans because it would help tourism and encourage investment. Earlier this year, the firm - one of the last big makers of bone china - shut part of its operation in Barlaston for a week because stock levels were not falling fast enough.
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Questions over greenbelt's future - BBC
2005-05-03
	It may have been overshadowed nationally by more emotive issues such as the Iraq war, school discipline and the state of hospitals, but in Gloucestershire the environment is high on the political agenda. A disagreement between the county council and deputy prime minister John Prescott earlier this year over the preservation of greenbelt land around Gloucester and Cheltenham could escalate into a full-blown row. The council has said it wants to protect the land by blocking any housing development until after 2016, but says Mr Prescott has insisted it should remove the proposed ban.
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Green belt plan attacked - BBC
2004-09-28
	Green belt campaigners in Aberdeen have accused the city's council of proposing an unlawful plan to build thousands of new houses on protected land. But Aberdeen City Council claim there is no conflict between its plan and the existing area structure plan. It wants to release green belt land to build 6,000 new houses after 2010. But existing planning laws say no more than 800 houses should be built, which is the Aberdeen Greenbelt Alliance protest group's line of argument.
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A brown future for UK housing? - BBC
2003-12-11
	It only seems a few years ago since the idea of house building on brownfield sites was held up as the solution to a shortage of new homes in the UK, particularly in the south of England. Former factories and other industrial sites would be swept aside in a flurry of "recycling activity", with local authorities speeding planning applications through while prized greenbelt land was left unspoiled. However it has not quite worked out like that in practice. As the recent review of housing carried out for the Treasury by the Bank of England's Kate Barker points out, an extra 39,000 new homes need to be built each year just to keep up with the UK's population growth.
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We can see the promised land - Telelgraph
2003-12-11
	For many people who have been buying plots of green belt and farm land, hoping to build once planning consent is given, there is fresh comfort in a new initiative aimed at co-ordinating efforts to speed up planning and spur the building of affordable homes. Bernadette Ives, 41, a former director of a medical publishing company, bought a plot at a site in Bramber, West Sussex, in January. "A month later," she says, "we heard about the formation of United Plotowners Associates and joined because my husband and I are interested in self-build and turn-key." However, obtaining planning permission on sites is notoriously contentious and UPA offers to help landowners through this minefield. One of its strategies is to bring together several local plot-holders and apportion some of their collective land on which to build affordable housing.
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City plans 17,000 new homes - BBC
2003-10-29
	Thousands of new homes and major road schemes are planned for Cardiff under a new blueprint for the future of the city. Cardiff Council's vision over the next 13 years includes using brownfield sites for an estimated 16,800 new houses. It is hoped that building on these previously developed areas will mean fewer houses will have to be constructed on greenbelt land.
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A plot of gold in the back yard - Telegraph
2002-11-20
	In 1999 Chris Jepson bought a bungalow in Lincoln with two-thirds of an acre for £55,000, and found a pot of gold at the bottom of his garden. Within three years, he had refurbished the house, sold it on and built himself a new home on part of the plot that is now valued at £300,000. Bricks and mortar are most people's biggest asset. With the twin phenomena of soaring property prices and a scarcity of vacant plots, there are few more lucrative ways to make that asset work than by building on a spare bit of land. The Jepsons had initially planned to live in the 1920s bungalow and leave it at that - until someone did the maths for them.
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