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Myth - most people these days want larger houses with gardens
Reality
- the Government is now forcing Councils and developers to build
ever-smaller houses packed in more closely together either without
gardens or else with only tiny yard gardens many young professionals
and older people only want a quiet space to sit in the sun or to hold
occasional barbecues terraces with low maintenance yards are ideal for
many types of residents demand for smaller more manageable homes is
currently far higher than the supply available
Myth - prices of terraces are declining.
Reality
- prices are rising strongly the HM Land Registry keeps a record of all
prices paid for houses it reports that prices paid for terraces are
rising steeply and have been rising for the last three years the
average price of a terrace for Middlesbrough has trebled (Source: Land
Registry via “upmystreet.com”) in the last 3 years if the Housing
Pathfinder initiative is really being carried out on "a housing-market
basis" then the current ongoing market before the wide spread
Middlesbrough Council created panic must be take account the market for
terraces in Middlesbrough is no longer "collapsed" without any state
intervention and has risen strongly over the past years prices have
risen even in Middlesbrough’s most "undesirable areas"
Myth - first-time owner-occupier buyers shun terraced houses
Reality
- the Middlesbrough market appears to be being driven by a healthy
proportion of owner occupier buyers so it is not correct to say the
Middlesbrough housing market is being driven up by buy-to-let investors
there are buy-to-let investors in the market not all such investors are
un reputable cowboys
Myth - it is cheaper to clear them with bulldozers and build again
Reality
- it is more cost-effective to refurbish than to demolish the cost of
CPO [compulsory purchase order] compensation and demolishing an empty
property can be considerably more than improving a home in which
someone is living it's far cheaper to turn them into modern acceptable
homes than it is to build new on all counts the finances are stacked
heavily in favour of renovating
Myth - thinking simply that to purchase and demolish properties will be cost effective
Reality
- there are also huge environmental costs in reducing homes to rubble
for example it takes the energy from a barrel of oil to make just eight
new bricks and enormous landfill & pollution implications in
disposing of demolition waste In environmental as well as social terms
demolition is not "cheap" there may well be un - counted negative
implications for the budgets of health, social-services, schools as
well as deterring inward investment and down shifters from relocating
to the town
Myth - Middlesbrough has lost a % of its population therefore we need to clear at least a % of the houses
Reality
- this myth ignores the well-established long-term trend towards
smaller and one person households as more people live alone or get
divorced and live longer so more houses are needed than otherwise in
the housing market this trend has significantly offset population
shrinkage in the city this myth also ignores the ongoing inflow of
people through immigration which also drives up demand for affordable
homes
Myth - terraces are always in poor condition so no one wants to buy them
Reality
- people do want to buy them research suggests that dilapidation
resulting from removal of Renovation Grants & the imposition of VAT
on repairs since the 1980's is not a critical factor which puts people
off buying
Myth - demand can be centred on new and good housing
Reality
- in many instances even the building of new houses cannot ensure
regeneration and a healthy local housing market genuine community-based
planning and refurbishment offers a better chance of sustainable
regeneration.
Myth - terraced houses are damp and thus unfit
Reality
- just because a building is old doesn't mean it has outlived its use
it is not the mythical dampness or age of terraces that is the problem
in areas of York or Stratford -upon-Avon two up two down terraced
houses with a small rear yard fetch £180,000 and even more in the south
east old houses generally command a price premium research has clearly
shown that a pre-1919 house is worth on average one-fifth more than an
equivalent house from a more recent era.
Myth - once everyone knows they're coming down they can be bought up cheap for demolition
Reality
- the way that compensation has to be paid to commercial operations
means that business consortia have bought up blocks of terraces in
likely demolition areas and put in asylum seekers via lucrative Home
Office contracts Regeneration experts have stated that such businessmen
will be very expensive and tough to buy out using Compulsory Purchase
Orders
Myth - if a terraced house is to be demolished the owner gets back what the true market value plus handsome compensation on top
Reality
- owners currently get only the current market value set at the time a
Council demolition scheme formally purchases the house via a Compulsory
Purchase Order plus only about £2,000 to £3,000 as compensation no one
gets rich from demolition except the developers who build on the
cleared land.
Myth - terraces just need to be replaced with something better
Reality
- something better is often built to slipshod standards by low-skilled
workers room sizes in new build estates are often actually smaller than
in older terraced houses new estates use more land (up to 40 percent
more) than necessary even newly built housing can quickly become
difficult to sell in many inner cities there is at least one new-build
nightmare often small new-build estates which quickly become un
sellable even if the fabric of new houses is indeed better the fabric
of the community is often non-existent on new build estates demolition
rarely extends to a regenerated community spirit and sense of community
involvement
Myth - terraces just need to be replaced with something modern
Reality
- this myth ignores the strong heritage argument by looking the same as
everywhere else in the country new housing estates deeply damage the
regional distinctiveness terraced housing has played a key role in the
recovery of London and other popular towns and cities since the 1970's.
Myth
- replacing terraces with new-build houses enables Councils to
introduce a more mixed type of housing stock rented social-housing
ownership rent-to-buy etc this mixing is socially useful and aids
regeneration
Reality - research evidence clearly shows that such
mixed housing does not significantly contribute to the regeneration of
an area and actually has some negative effects the evidence base for
the effects of mixed tenure and tenure mixing is weak available
evidence suggests effects are not strong and there are some negative
effects in some cases effects are at least partly due to regeneration
or social mix rather than tenure mix the evidence does not justify
promotion of mixed tenure and tenure mixing
Myth - terraced houses are unhealthy
Reality
- no one really knows the effect on health not even the top researchers
- Norman Parkinson lecturer in environmental health at King's College
University of London gave evidence to a Government committee "We do not
have any particularly good data which links long-term exposure to small
doses of bad housing conditions, with health outcomes but we do know
what effect demolition has there are long-term ill-health & stress
arising from compulsory purchase of someone's home most strongly
affecting children and the elderly Individuals who relocate unwillingly
are the most likely to experience stress conditions such as depression
anxiety restlessness and disorientation are also manifestations as well
as increased vulnerability to infections"
Myth - terraced housing attracts dodgy absentee landlords who let to anti-social tenants
Reality
- it is not the houses which are the problem since new-build social
housing can bring with it much the same problems only a tiny minority
of tenants cause problems rented terraces can even be seen as a public
benefit through providing affordable homes for many honest &
law-abiding groups such as new comers newly-formed couples low-wage
earners recent divorcees and students if tenants do cause problems then
the authorities need to use their huge range of new powers to curb un
savory activities such as landlord licensing police vetting of tenants
confiscation of empty houses anti-social behaviour orders
litter-abatement orders drug raids on-the-spot fines truancy fines etc.
good practice such as better street lighting youth clubs playground
maintenance litter clearance gates on alleyways etc
Myth - clearance of terraces boosts prices and demand in neighbouring areas
Reality
- Anne Power the UK's leading housing expert says that there is
evidence that recent clearance actually blighted neighbouring areas
"The problems already experienced by the re housing of displaced
families in Newcastle where demolition forced the re - housing of many
families has created knock-on effects on the next layer of
neighbourhoods often blighting them and spreading rather than
containing the problem of low demand there is an additional effect
demolition blights local schools Birmingham now has a major educational
problem arising directly from mass demolition of homes as large numbers
of children move from school to school these unsettled children have
dramatically lowered school attainment statistics poorly performing
schools mean aspirational families will not move into the area and
teacher recruitment becomes almost impossible
Myth - terrace houses are energy inefficient and are expensive to maintain
Reality
- they are cheaper to run & maintain sophisticated research on this
matter was carried out for Heritage Counts in 2003 a team of architects
quantity surveyors and mechanical and electrical engineers compared a
Victorian terraced house with a modern post-1980 house "The research
demonstrated that contrary to earlier thinking older housing actually
costs less to maintain and occupy over the long-term life of the
dwelling than more modern housing largely due to the quality and
life-span of the materials used the Victorian [terrace] house proved
almost £1,000 per 100m2 cheaper to maintain and inhabit on average each
year”
Myth - people don't like living in old terraced houses
Reality
- people like living in a home they own and have a chance of owning
outright within a few years terraces give ordinary people on modest
incomes a chance of home-ownership in a steeply rising housing market
the best survey shows that 90 percent of all households want to buy
their own house and 74 percent say they want an older house
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