A National Association of Estate Agents report has been roundly dismissed as being “out of date and unhelpful” in blaming a shortage of bricks as being one of the chief reasons behind Britain’s housing crisis.
The NAEA report - which was written by the Centre for Economics & Business `research and which we carried yesterday - said a shortage of bricks has been a contributing factor in rising house prices over the past decade, suggesting there may be a shortfall equivalent to 1.4 billion bricks.
However, this has provoked an angry response from the Brick Development Association, which represents UK brick manufacturers. It says the data used in the report dated back to April 2015 and is 15 months out of date, misleading and damaging.
“This is a lazy analysis. The BDA represents 99 per cent of the brick manufacturers in the UK. We can report with absolute authority that there is no shortage. There has been a significant increase in brick production over the last 15 months and this is confirmed by the Office for National Statistics” says Andrew Eagles, chief executive of the BDA.
“I find it astonishing that the CEBR felt it useful to release a report that was so out of date” he says, adding that: “The challenges the brick industry faced in 2014 when there was a dramatic increase in housebuilding are now behind us and the industry is confident it can meet the growing demand for its products in housing and other construction projects.”
His organisation says in the second quarter of 2016, brick deliveries were 10.4 per cent higher than in the first quarter. The deliveries in June were also 7.4 per cent higher than the figure predicted in May.
“Notably, these results correlate with recent positive news in the housebuilding industry” says a BDA statement. “41,222 new homes were built in the UK in Q2, which is a one per cent increase on the same period in 2015. Most importantly, this is also the highest number of houses built since Q4 of 2007.”
The NAEA has issued a statement saying that CEBR stands by its report and its use of figures.
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Oh dear. I can confidently predict that the NAEA won't react well to this and will be preparing a strong and robust counter-statement as we speak. Who to believe, though?
It is rather comical that the housing shortage is now being centred around the number of bricks available, which (if I'm not mistaken) mostly come from the EU. So we don't have enough bricks at the moment, and we've just voted to leave the EU - where most of the bricks come. Hand meet face!
OOPS!!
OMG maybe we should use Lego bricks then
OMG maybe we should use Lego bricks then
Who to believe? Someone is telling porkies. As usual with these things, it's probably somewhere in the middle.
Even if there are enough bricks, there are clearly not enough new homes being built. That can't be disputed. Of the ones that are, too many are luxury apartments and hardly any are genuinely affordable to people on average or even above average salaries, particularly in London. Not just because of the house prices, but because of the high deposits now required - which many people take years to cobble together, not helped by ultra-low interest rates. Even then, assistance from family or inheritances are required. It's not sustainable. It's been that way for a long time now, but it's been getting worse and worse under the last three governments. Something needs to be done, but it seems as if the will isn't really there for a radical overhaul of the housing market. Lots of lip-service is paid to the issue, but nothing is ever actually done.
Instead, we get things like the extension of Right to Buy (in England, at least), which is one of the reasons why we're in this mess now. And then gimmicky schemes like Help to Buy (which doesn't even seem to do what it says it's supposed to do), Shared Ownership and Build to Rent. None of these things, on their own, are enough - they're just papering over the cracks, and they barely managed that.
How exactly does Right to Buy contribute to the housing shortage?
Maybe we should make some more buyers to pain the shortage of properties further.
Supply and demand.
Remember the young girl who during the school holidays befriended blokes who were working on the new build site next to her home?
Well, she was there so often they thought she should become one of the workers so let her undertake fairly simple tasks like making the tea etc. They paid her a few quid out of their substantial wages and suggested her mother open a savings account for her.
This she duly did and her mother accompanied her to the local post office to open a savings account. The kind man at the Post Office asked her how long she had been helping out at the building site and she said three weeks. He then asked her if she would be working there the next week, and she said that depends.....she hesitated, and then the man said to her, depends on what?
She said "Well, it depends on whether those w****** at J****** remember to deliver the f****** bricks on Monday"
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