I know of a few people who have moved into new flats in Bracknell both through the housing associations and for private rent. Some of them have had problems with their new homes for example with mould, fittings and central heating.
In mid May 09 the BBC reported on this nationally here. To quote the opening paragraph ‘Thousands of developers surplus new build homes in England are being rejected by housing associations as they are not of a high enough standard.’
In addition to these problems it is also reported here that the UK’s new homes are the smallest homes in the developed world. When compared to Holland where the average size is 115 square meters and even Japan where homes are known to be small are 92.5 square meters, while in the UK it is 76 square Meters.
I am concerned that these issues maybe affecting Bracknell residents simply because there has been a large home and flat building program in Bracknell over recent years, some of which is allocated to housing associations.
Both the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Chartered Institute of Housing believe the government should force all builds to have higher minimum standards.
Details of Bracknell Forest Housing Strategy can be found on this document attached. It also contains some very interesting Statistics on population trends.
http://www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/housing-strategy-2009-to-2014.pdf
Please comment and let me know if this issue has affected you, as I would like to investigate this further.
The housing situation in Bracknell Forest is a scandal. The Borough Council has long since washed its hands of any responsibility for providing sufficient new affordable homes in the Borough and the new Council inspired housing association, Bracknell Forest Homes, has yet to provide even one new home since its inception a year ago.
ReplyDeleteI have yet to study the Council's latest housing strategy document but I will be very surprised if it does much to reduce its current housing waiting list, which extends to well over 4000.
As far as quality is concerned I believe national house-building standards are not being properly enforced and we have only greedy land speculators and developers to blame for many of the cramped and inadequate housing projects that now blot the landscape.
Im from the wolverhampton area and recently me and my partner were looking at moving in to a new build house, we were told by a good 6 or 7 people that we were heading for disaster! So in the end we decided against it. We currently in the process of our own new build planning ideas, and I have to say that although it is expensive to do its great fun (and stress!) plus you can make sure yourself that nothing goes wrong!
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