As we all know, one of the new Labour Government’s plans is to build 1.5 million new homes in five years. According to the Big Issue that’s down to just six companies to deliver.
That’s 821 per day of the five years of the Government’s life. Per day. Or 34 per hour. The way things are looking 34 a week would be a miracle.
The BBC has a story about the housing estate from hell. Bassingbourn Fields, Fordham, Cambridgeshire, is a development of 100 new-build homes, but it’s riven with problems:
For some in this new build community, the name of the developer – Bellway – has become a dirty word.
“We call it Hellway,” one homeowner tells me, after what residents describe as more than two years of chaos and no end of snags – the industry term for defects.
Bellway says it is working on resolving outstanding issues. So what has gone wrong?
“When you buy a new-build you expect some snags – a few cracks here and there,” says Jon Trevenna, 70, who moved into his house in early 2022, hoping for an easy retirement and more time with his grandchildren.
“You don’t expect three major leaks in your bathroom, a downstairs radiator to be plumbed into the upstairs and vice versa, the fence between you and your neighbour to look like a rollercoaster,” he adds.
“There were so many problems, most of the small stuff we had to fix ourselves.”
At first glance, Bassingbourn Fields looks like a textbook modern development, surrounded by countryside.
But the residents we’ve spoken to tell a very different story.
A young woman, who didn’t want to be identified, tells me that within weeks of moving in, the entire staircase collapsed and her husband fell into the understairs cupboard.
“The contractor who came to fix it said there was only one screw in each step. There should have been 14,” she says.
“We’ll leave as soon as we can – too many bad memories here.”
Yet, says the BBC story, Bellway has won five-star status for eight years running in the Home Builders Federation.
We asked Bellway Homes to explain the chaos at Bassingbourn Fields.
In a statement, it said it was “aware of defects on the site” and wanted to “apologise to homeowners who may not have received the service expected”.
“A new home is a hand-built product, so defects do occur, and often only become apparent once homeowners move into their home,” the company continued.
“As a responsible developer, all of our homes are sold with the benefit of a 10-year Buildmark warranty, of which the first two years are covered by Bellway, whereby we will remediate any defects found in properties.”
While many hazards have been fixed, there are still cracked or overgrown pathways, a flooded drainage basin and metal pipes or electrical wires protruding into the recently completed children’s play area.
Bellway said it was working on resolving these outstanding issues.
Last month it handed over responsibility for the site’s upkeep to a third-party management company.
Some residents have refused to pay their first bill.
Perhaps that could all be dismissed as a one-off. Another purely coincidental ‘one-off’ is the luxury development of 40 homes at White Horse Meadows, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, this time built by Kendrick Homes. According to the Mail:
Residents of a “luxury” newbuild development where homes sell for up to £700,000 say they’ve been sold a lie and are living in a nightmare.
White Horse Meadows near Banbury in Oxfordshire boasts around 40 properties – many built in the traditional sandstone quarried in the region making them stand out from your average newbuild.
But while developers Kendrick Homes gloats of “our commitment to quality, detail, design and pride shows in the homes we build” and how “behind our quality new build homes lies a century of craftsmanship” – its residents say otherwise.
“This was meant to be the perfect home, I was so excited to get in,” said the 32-year-old, who shares the property with her Labradors Atlas and Dudley.
But alarm bells began ringing when problems with the home pushed Livvy’s move in date back four months – which nearly cost her the buyer on her previous property.
Mateusz Florczak, who is originally from Poland, worked hard to buy his £360,000 home with his girlfriend but has been left disgusted at how Kendrick have treated him.
“They dug up our drive three times, they asked once if they can do it,” the engineer explained. “One day I came back from work, saw a massive digger in my driveway and a hole two metres deep. Nobody ever told me.”
The house appeared in good condition when the couple first set foot in it last September but by the second day the sink and shower had leaked – wrecking the ceiling in the downstairs toilet.
The 33-year-old explained: “They cut part of the ceiling off, it wasn’t glued properly, you can’t have a shower.”
There were issues elsewhere, with Mateusz adding: “The decorating was so poor and badly done you could see the waves from the tool used by the plasterer. In every room there were at least 30 burst nails coming from the plaster board. The skirting boards were dirty.
“In the second month we had some tiles drop off the roof. We were chasing them up everyday. We were taking days off from work and they didn’t attend.”
Worst was yet to come as decorators and chippies came in to amend dozens of other decorating and building mishaps – but that turned into its own nightmare.
Mateusz, who submitted seven pages of snagging issues to developers, added: “They sent a painter who put a wet brush and a dirty ladder on our carpet, he didn’t put any dust carpets down. He painted wood with wall paint and just painted patches. He left mess everywhere. I told him to leave.
“They [workers] turned up three times to fix the front door, twice for the balcony doors. The pointing then obstructed the doors. There were stones stuck in the mastic around the door.
“We have lived in a small flat before, this was a big step forward for us. Brand new house means you move in and don’t need to do anything pretty much.”
Worth reading the rest of the story in full to find out about problems experienced by several other discontented buyers. Hard to see how the housebuilding trade is going to transform itself overnight into a Gerry Anderson style fantasy housebuilding machine, with bricks and concrete thrown in at the front while 821 immaculate completed homes appear at the back every 24 hours.
Of all the hostages to fortune Labour has wheeled out since it smelled power, its house-building target looks the one most likely to haunt it to the end of its time in Government. Lack of materials, lack of key trades and lack of basic labour (to say nothing of all the ‘green’ regulations imposed on new builds). But since the party has already hit the ground running with broken promises and pulling out nasty surprises, we need merely to wait to see how this one gets filed away conveniently in the office wastepaper basket. And also how it wasn’t Labour’s fault.
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With Western birth rates on a steady downward trajectory, including the UK, why on earth do we need to build so many new homes? I wonder. No mention of that of course.
Advertising signs that con you
Into thinking you’re the one
That can do what’s never been done
That can win what’s never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you.
“We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying. In our country, the lie has become not just moral category, but the pillar industry of this country.”
All this guff and nonsense about unattainable house building targets and impossible moves to EV cars, it seems to be a prelude to telling us that we cannot have what we have got used to. It seems to be leading us into a grey and dismal future of prefabricated housing pods in bleak 15 minute cities with no cars. It’s life Jim but not as we know it!
Our governments are simply in the pockets of the Technocrat globalists at the UN/WEF. With Labour deeper in there than the rest of them. They try o pretend they are the GOVERNMENT, when infact they are simply local administrators doing as they are told by the phony planet savers and national Identity destroyers.
One wonders if there will be a “tipping-point” for our patience.
A newly built airliner is a handbuilt project, so defects do occur, and often only become apparent in use. Try telling that to airline users.
Looks like the result of tradesmen with no commitment to either Bellway of the local area, poor supervision and no QA
Did Boeing hire workers who used to build houses recently?
Getting rid of the old fashioned apprenticeships has worked out well hasn’t it? The near enough is good enough culture is biting those who felt no need for apprenticeships and meritocracy in the preverbal A***. Reap what you sow.
I wonder were the workers on these projects from the much needed immigrant labour force?
Before 1.5 million homes can be built, electricity, gas, sewer lines, land drainage, water, telecoms, services have to be built prior, also access roads. Then of course more school places and medical facilities.
And… where will the resources come from to build all this?
Historically, many road improvements, and all the other services mentioned, occur well after a new development. I’m familiar with that in my area. Some road job’s don’t get done at all, if certain developers wheedle their way of section106 or 278 (planning obligations) agreements to hand over cash for certain projects.
It’s not all that new, either. Back when I was at a primary school a few decades ago, some years were in temporary add-on buildings, when the original buildings were too small to cope with the demand, due to new houses being built.
Or how about Edenbridge in Kent where they closed the secondary school and then went on a house building spree. Guess what, parents are pleading for a secondary school and that’s before Labour forces the private schools into bankruptcy.
Are you saying the houses when completed have no gas, electricity, water supply, or drainage – and no road access?
1.5 million homes in 5 years —-ha ha ha ha ho ho haha jeez. ——Even if the silly socialist dreamers pull it off, that will only cover the migrants that Starmer is organising to bring here with his trip to Germany to create “closer ties”. ——–Then there is an even bigger joke, which is being carbon neural by 2030 and getting rid of 23 million gas boilers. —-Yes it is indeed a joke, but the joke is on the British people.
I suppose being polish, at least the plumbing issues he could fix himself.
All those damn builders are Tory 5th columnists. The scum!
You still think it’s party politics?
Incidentally, a new housing estate should not be in fact nor regarded as a new community. If planning has been done properly it will be an integral part of the existing community of Fordham
Local people are putting up with a lot. Road closures for weeks at a time have caused long detours and lengthened journeys. The Miliband approved massive solar farm is highly contested and it will cause immense disruption, loss of wildlife habitat, loss of open views and a loss of farm land where food used to be grown. Employment opportunities will fall and the value added in the local communities will drop markedly while Chinese manufacturers, outsider installers and offshore investors will all gain.
Deport 2 million illegal migrants – problem solved.
The obvious answer is to nationalise the builders.
What, to make the situation worse?
Sorry, but I call bullsh1t.
1.5 million homes over 5 years, or 300,000 per year, is the same target as the Conservatives had (but did f all to achieve).
The private sector has run at about 150k per year, give or take, since the war.
The public sector ran at about the same rate until the 1970s, when Margaret Thatcher, in a rare lapse of judgement, killed off public sector building.
Details here:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/746101/completion-of-new-dwellings-uk/
Labour’s ability to meet their target will depend on whether they have the guts to restart public sector building, or whether the Blairites manage to suppress that.
Incidentally, the UK managed over 200k in 2022 so only needs to up construction by 50 percent to reach the target. A challenge, but absolutely doable if Labour don’t turn out to be all mouth like the Tories.
This is similar to all of those windmills Milliband wants to build, where are the materials coming from and where are the construction workers coming from? Some years ago, the then Government announced the mass building plan and realised they would need the total brick output from both the UK and France to come even close to it. As far as new is concerned, the biggest con is the NHBC guarantee which is no such thing. If you have a problem these days, they now say that the cost of repair is below the minimum payment level – which didn’t exist 20 years ago – and if you point out that you cannot afford to do the work yourself and it will become a bigger problem if they do not fix it now, they say, not our fault if you are not looking after your home, it’s just a big con trick from the building firms. Finally, as far as the star ratings, that is voted and decided on by the building firm themselves and means nothing.
Labour will be learning the hard way that student union politics doesn’t translate to being able to run the country and are probably having the shortest honeymoon period in history. How long before our growth starts to collapse as Labour taxes it to a standstill and there are no more dynamic millionaires left to fleece.
House building will be way behind Net Zero. That will affect everyone and the whole economy. There is no money now, so who will put our energy system right when Mulliband has destroyed what remains ? Who will decommission all the broken turbines ?