Tower block covered in green netting near London Bridge

[najaB]

It is likely modern mass produced housing would follow commercial properties in abandoning field laid brickwork as a significant building material for this very reason.

I'd expect either pre-fabrication or printing to be the method of choice, certainly for starter/first homes.

There are larger printing rigs that can build two storey buildings.

Edit: Replaced video with one that was less of a sales pitch.

 

[Meerkat]

Pre fab houses got criticised by the energy efficiency lot - not enough mass

I think you find half a million new houses coming on to the market would plummet prices. If not, there's brown belt sites for at least another million homes

There are over 27 million households in the UK so half a million isn’t a huge number.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...-blame-for-soaring-house-prices-a7419361.html

The Oxford Economics model suggests that even increasing home building to around 300,000 for one year, almost double the current rate, would reduce prices by only 0.6 per cent given rates of household formation.

 

[najaB]

Pre fab houses got criticised by the energy efficiency lot - not enough mass

Modern prefabs are some of the most energy efficient buildings out there. There's a reason they're so popular in Nordic countries.

Most of that half a million could start construction today. House builders already own the land for a million or so more, and brown field regeneration could easily support three or four million more before we need to start looking at greenbelt land.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Is there actually a shortage of houses, or just a shortage of houses to buy because of too much buy to let?

Yes, I would say there is definitely a shortage of houses, at least in some parts of the country. I live in London, and it's painfully obvious that the number of people who need or want houses to live in is way, way, greater than the number of houses that exist. Maybe there are some parts of the country where that's not the case, but in aggregate I'd say there are not enough houses in the UK for all the people who need them.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

There is no housing crisis.

There is an manufactured housing shortage designed to keep house prices artificially high since that makes homeowners "wealthy".

There are about 400,000 empty plots that already have planning permission and housing developers have banked enough land for a million or more new homes.

That seems a tad cynical. I don't doubt that there are numerous empty plots, but that's not because of any mass attempt to keep people homeless or any deliberate plan by the Government to keep home-owners wealthy. Companies who aren't building are doing what they regard as in their own commercial interests, they simply aren't going to be thinking one way or the other about whether what they are doing has any wider impact on society. I'd argue that for a long time the Government hasn't caused enough houses to be built because (a) for years they've been caught in a misguided philosophy about leaving it to the market and imagining the market will solve everything, and (b) they didn't understand the problem until it was too late. Complicated planning processes and the tendency of the public/councils to demand that new houses gets built somewhere else, not where they live, doesn't help either. Besides, even if there are empty plots with planning permission, that's not quite the same thing as there being empty plots with planning permission in the places that people want to live.

Yes, there's overall been a huge failing to build enough houses and that's left many people in a very awful situation. But I think by saying it's manufactured, you're making the mistake of assuming malice where the problem is really one of incompetence.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Also, to add to my other comments, I'm pretty sure there must be a shortage of trained builders etc., which would itself be having a big impact on housing supply. I've never seen any statistics on this, but my personal experience is that, whenever I've needed work done on my house, good reliable builders have turned out to be almost impossible to find... and the ones that do exist tend to be fully booked for months ahead. The going rates for independent traders seem to be around £200-£250 a day for labour for one person (excluding materials), preferably paid in cash. A quick calculation says that translates to about £50-£60K a year, enhanced by the obvious 'pay in cash' implication of tax dodging, but also offset by costs for vehicles and tools etc. That's not particularly unreasonable for a skilled job, but is far enough above what most people earn to suggest to me that that the market could support a lot more people working in that industry. Be interesting to know if any people in the building trade read this forum and would have any insight.

 

[najaB]

But I think by saying it's manufactured, you're making the mistake of assuming malice where the problem is really one of incompetence.

Not necessary malice, but definitely a lack of altruism.

 

[Meerkat]

Modern prefabs are some of the most energy efficient buildings out there. There's a reason they're so popular in Nordic countries.

I got it the wrong way round! It’s heat not cold that is the problem!
https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk...ar-homes-mps-tell-government/10033689.article
The government should stop funding the construction of modular homes, as they are not ’resilient to heatwaves’, according to a group of MPs

 

[najaB]

I got it the wrong way round! It’s heat not cold that is the problem!

If we used ground source heat pumps for winter heating we'd get the useful byproduct of cheap summer cooling.

 

[Busaholic]

Not necessary malice, but definitely a lack of altruism.

Sorry, I can't resist the story often told of the long deceased Conservative MP and junior minister Maurice Macmillan, son of ex-PM Harold Macmillan, the latter presiding over the huge housebuilding boom of the 1960s. Maurice was a very different kettle of fish, apparently, and the story goes when he was diagnosed with a tumour and it was found to be non-malignant a wit commented 'it's the only part of him that applies to'.

 

[chris7153]

Getting back to the origanal post on this. The tower block covered in green netting referred to is Maydew House part of the Abbeyfield estate in London borough Southwark. It is supposedly being refurbished with plans including additon of extra floors. However work seems to have come to a halt for some reason.