Tag: Local Democracy Local Accountability

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Letter to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Herewith, is a copy of the material posted to the
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

29 Mar 2025

Dear Sirs,

In answer to your request for comment, actually, as a post-war born male, having trained in the property sector and qualified, including in the vital business of how to value all property (as well as housing) I can see, first-hand, how the whole arrangement of using selling agents to market housing is no longer fit for purpose, especially in this modern age. 

A new and dynamic way of trading in vacant housing is therefore long overdue.

Also, if our present Labour government really does want to stimulate new house building to the extent envisioned, this will have to depend on completely changing how houses are bought and sold as well as having to devolve town planning decisions to the relevant towns and parishes themselves. After considering this it is clear that trying to decide all planning matters from as far away as Westminster, is simply a recipe for failure.

If it interests you to know more, please search online for ‘The House Price Solution’.

Once the correct market prices are derived by setting up a network of buying agents, housing would sell swiftly and legal conveyancing could also be enhanced to cope with such a vital uplift in market sales (and purchases), including dealing with satisfying more of the current rental demand.

Owning one’s own home could then, once again, become a hope and aspiration for each and everyone to enjoy.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Hendry

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This site proposes changes to the whole way in which houses are marketed by estate agents as well as bringing in far more effective planning controls. 

For more information on the necessary house marketing changes, go to:

The house price affordability crisis

“Solving the affordability crisis”

Posted by: Peter Hendry, Consulting Valuation Surveyor
Author of:– The House Price Solution

Unless things change significantly along the lines explained, countless people will continue to experience considerable financial anxiety or pain so, please sign our petition.
The link below opens this is in a new tab for you to look at.

The cost-effective way to stabilise housing affordability across the whole of Britain

Your action in asking our government to debate this could help bring about all of these much needed changes.

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The best way to solve the shortage of supply of available houses to rent or buy across the whole of Britain

There is a ‘middle way’ between central government trying to coerce local government into granting unwanted planning approvals for contentious residential housing developments and opposition governments becoming elected by saying they would bring back compulsory housing targets!

It is to allow local town and parish councils to determine residential planning permissions and by so doing, manage and maintain the balance of their own local housing supply and demand.

To achieve this I am campaigning for a complete transfer of decision-making powers for the granting of residential planning approvals, which would give local parish and town councils full responsibility to bring forward effective development plans and be able to grant planning approvals in accordance with these without interference by central government.

In other words the responsibility to balance the use of all residential property should be assigned to local parish and town councils in order to meet existing and future demand for the right type of residential development within their area.

This would make such councils active in ensuring that new and existing residential property, within their jurisdiction, would allow for a user-spread which is fully able to accommodate future demand for housing within the local residential property pool under their control.

Enabling this would be enabling real town planning. If given this responsibility, each district and its local planning committees would be expected to balance the demands for each type of residential property user in their area, so that those requiring housing in its various forms should be able to obtain it.

In this way, each area would be empowered to succeed in providing housing for its own residents. This could result in all areas within the Britain becoming able to house its local inhabitants adequately.

What we need is ‘Local’ Democracy, ‘Local’ Accountability.

This proposal would work by completely replacing the current top-down residential planning policies, which are failing and demonstrably insufficient. I ask that this new proposal for root and branch change should be fully examined, scrutinised, debated and after all of that, be inaugurated.

This site proposes changes to the whole way in which houses are marketed by agents as well as bringing in far more effective planning controls. 

For more information on the necessary house marketing changes, go to:

The house price affordability crisis

“Solving the affordability crisis”

Posted by: Peter Hendry, Consulting Valuation Surveyor
Author of:– The House Price Solution

Please also note. Unless things change significantly along the lines explained, countless people will continue to experience considerable financial anxiety or pain so, please sign our petition.
The link below opens this is in a new tab for you to look at.

The cost-effective way to stabilise housing affordability across the whole of Britain

Your action in asking our government to debate this could help bring about all of these much needed changes.

This is a no nonsense solution for housing, by balancing demand and supply in each separate local area within Britain.