The Government Is Going To Change The Planning System Again!!!

Well the Government has published another gem! It’s a scheme to kick-start the economy by reducing planning laws once again.  Many people have contacted me today to see if they can now build a larger extension as a result of watching Mr Clegg on the BBC morning news.  However, as always “the devil is in the detail” as they say. I’ve attached a link to the Government’s website for the exact statement issued by Eric Pickles (quite an apt name for what they are doing to the planning system !).

The link is:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/statements/corporate/housingandgrowth

I would really like to know what people think of the statement made by the Government.

In all don’t get your hopes up. I really don’t think it will help Joe Public to build larger extensions, but let’s wait and see.

In my very humble opinion, the simplest way of encouraging the building of extensions is to reduce the VAT on extensions from 20% down to say 10% or 5% (new-build is 0% !!!!).  The biggest grumble we get from the householder is the quote for their extension is £60,000 plus VAT, which is then another £12,000, taking the spend up to £72,000 which in a lot of cases makes the extension unviable.  So please Mr Cameron & Clegg just reduce the VAT on this sector.

I will keep you posted as things develop!!

Barn Conversions and Planning Applications

Wow! - where has this year gone? Time is simply flying by, the summer has been and gone and now it’s autumn!  I know it’s autumn mainly because my 11 year old son said Dr Who is back on the television in the autumn. As it was screened on Saturday he confirmed to me it’s now autumn!! Nothing to do with leaves changing colour. Mmm…. progress.

We have been watching the Olympics and currently the Paralympics both of which are absolutely brilliant.  A very big well done to the athletes and all the people who actually made it happen. It does show that collectively when GB people put their minds to it, they can achieve.  I just hope the press keep positive about it all rather than digging for sour grape stories, so let’s keep that positive mood going everyone.  

Although one thing that does completely frustrate me is that the Government has just given the banks another £80 billion as QE but we have clients who have enormous trouble trying to borrow £8,000!!! Come on banks help people and just be fair. A strange concept I know but if everyone pulls together and works for the common good of the country we can achieve.

Onto the work front, we are currently working on a broad spectrum of projects, from barn conversions (two of those!) to new dwellings and apartment buildings.

The planning application approval rate is still being maintained at our 99% for the last ten years, something we are all very proud of.  I also assure you that we make more than one application a year!!  We do cover a very broad spectrum of planning applications from commercial to residential.

I visited a client’s project last week for whom we obtained planning permission, building control approval and constructed the works.  The purpose of the visit was to review the project as it was completed some six months earlier, I am both proud and pleased to say that the works still look stunning, and, most importantly, the client still has a beaming smile and is so pleased with the finished project (their words not mine).