Pickles calls on brokers to kick-start stalled developments

Great Idea! Does this mean the government is doing a u-turn on CIL too?!

The problem isn't building them. It's selling them once they're built. The current mortgage market makes that virtually impossible for many, many people as they can't get a big enough mortgage.

Great idea Eric, get intermediaries to work for free! Why not scrap the 106 agreements or make them more realistic?? Plus I agree with Rob Derry that once the properties are built the problem is then finding a lender willing to grant a mortgage.

While some S106 were written with unreasonable financial contributions, most reflect the actual cost of infrastructure. I am both a broker and vice chairman of planning and we are now seeing application after application with developers looking to reduce their payment.

However, this leaves no money for local government to build the required roads, schools, parks, etc,so who is going to pay for a developer to make money? Should all taxpayers in an area pay for what are often unwanted houses?

Or should we allo road congestion made worse by people travelling miles to the nearest school by car?

It is easy as brokers to criticise when all they focus on is the lost revenue for more business, but local government has to make real decisionsthat affect people's lives. We see everyday the poor planning decisions of the past and sometimes we are better off saying no.

As I have said before, building houses does not stimulate growth, but is an effect of it. We are all living somewhere at the moment and new housing is only needed for population growth (or shift from elsewhere in the UK to London) or to replace homes that cannot be repaired.