Poor Quality Of Newly Built Homes In Britain

A campaign to highlight the poor quality of newly built UK homes has been launched by House Beautiful magazine.

The ‘Built to Last’ campaign follows research that shows 20% of new homes built in the UK in the last five years were of such bad quality, they should have been denied planning permission.*  Problems included poorly planned, close to major roads, poor access to neighbours, not safe for children to play outside and isolated.

Research by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors also revealed that most newly built homes had an average of 60 snags (defects in the structure and finish of the building) such as shoddy paintwork and plastering, faulty fixtures and fittings and overall poor design.

With  three  million  new homes to be built in the UK in the next 12 years, House  Beautiful wants to lobby the Government to introduce four reforms it believes  will  transform  housing  in  the  UK.   Hundreds  of readers and industry  experts  have  already  written  in  to  support the campaign, in particular a reform to have VAT on refurbishment cut to five per cent.

The four reforms are:
  1. For  New  Homes  –  a  proper,  enforceable two–year customer care service guarantee for all new homes
  2. For  All  Homes  –  VAT  on  refurbishment  work  to be cut from a crippling 17.5% to five percent.
  3. For  the  Environment – The three million proposed new homes to be built  on brownfield sites only, to protect our country’s precious green belt land.
  4. For  Families – A guarantee that every new development should have a  well-managed  park  or  playground  built  with  it, with local authority planners given the power to demand this.

House  Beautiful  magazine Editor Julia Goodwin says, “We hear from readers on  a  regular  basis  about the frustrations of moving into a new home and then  discovering that it leaks, the lights don't work or the wrong kitchen has  been  fitted. If you buy a kettle or toaster that doesn't work you can take  it  back  to the shop and get a replacement. Home buyers need to have the  same  rights. Three million new homes will be created over the next 12 years  yet,  according  to  the  Office of Fair Trading, almost one in four people  who  buy  a newly-built home in Britain complain of serious quality problems.  Young  people especially need help to get on the property ladder but we can't support build-it-quick-whatever-the-cost policies. If we can't get the basics right why on earth are we building so many?"

The  magazine  plans  to take letters, postcards and messages of support to the  current  Housing  Minister Caroline Flint in an effort to push through
the  reforms.   It  is  also working closely with housing and environmental groups as part of the campaign.
 

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