PART of Suffolk's biggest open-air arena could be redeveloped for about 250 new homes, it was revealed today.
But the Suffolk Agricultural Association (SAA) stressed that the county show would not be moving - and the money generated from land sold would be used to improve the event.
The bid involves using part of the Suffolk showground, now known as Trinity Park, and other land nearby for 970 new homes needed for east Ipswich.
In a Suffolk Coastal District Council report put out to public consultation planners talked about redeveloping the whole of the £100 million site and said the biggest issue would be the relocation of the county showground.
It is one of five sites on the east of Ipswich which have been identified as possible places for new homes in the next 15 years.
But SAA chief executive Chris Bushby said the association was only proposing to use 17 acres of the 350-acre site for homes.
The land around its edge had been bought by the SAA over the years with a view to the long-term.
He said: “There would be no impact on the Suffolk Show and the event will definitely not be moving. If we could use 17 acres for housing this would generate some money which we could use to improve our facilities and accelerate our development.”
One project is a £3 million set of buildings for livestock displays.
In the past few years the showground has seen huge investment with a new conference centre and other facilities, used for all kinds, from special activity weekends, to meetings, weddings and balls.
Deputy Suffolk Coastal council leader, Andy Smith, said the authority was currently looking at “possible broad locations for housing growth” and would decide on the specific sites later in the year after analysing the results of the public consultation.
He said: “In round figures, we think that there should be around 1,000 homes built in the east of Ipswich area and a further 1,600 at Felixstowe, Walton and the Trimley villages.
“What we now want to hear is people's ideas on where, in broad terms, those areas it would be appropriate for those homes to go. I would emphasise that the priority will continue to be to redevelop brownfield sites where possible before Greenfield ones.
“The stark facts are that we need to plan for more homes, and that the best place is in a group close to where there is already the jobs, schools, shops, roads and other infrastructure that are needed for quality of life, or the group itself is big enough to support new facilities.”
Should the Suffolk Showground be used for housing? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail EveningStarLetters@eveningstar.co.uk
FASTFACTS: Suffolk Showground
The showground has been the home for the Suffolk Show - a platform for showing off the best of the county's agriculture, help businesses promote themselves, educating people about the countryside and Suffolk life - since 1960.
Before that it was held in various parts of the county, including twice in Felixstowe, on land in High Road East.
The show is run by the Suffolk Agricultural Association, which was set up in 1831 to put on the show and today works to promote agriculture through the development of skills and techniques and research.
Planners say advantages of the area for homes is the site is close to existing developments and facilities, but it would increase traffic on the A14 and Felixstowe Road into Ipswich town centre.
Source: http://www.eveningstar.co.uk/
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Farm land prices up for first time in a decade
Acc to a recent survey - The farm land prices last year rose faster than they have for more than a decade as high grain prices encouraged British farmers to buy land to expand production.
City bonuses helped fuel a rise in land prices of 27.9 per cent last year but surveyors say that these "lifestyle" buyers of agricultural land are likely to back off as the turmoil in financial markets affects bonuses.
British farmers, however, surged back into the land market last year, rivalling Irish and Danish buyers for whom land in Britain is cheap, according to the annual survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
This pushed the average price paid for land through the £10,000-a-hectare barrier for the first time, reaching £10,949 a hectare or £4430 an acre, from £9,929 a hectare or £4018 an acre in the first half of last year.
A major reason the supply of land on the market increased was a rush by landowners to sell off land before April when rates of capital gains tax increase. After that the land market is expected to slacken.
Sue Steer, spokesman for the RICS, said: "Rising commodity prices have resulted in a bit of a feeding frenzy for farmland as farmers compete with investors and foreign farmers for arable land.
"Supply may loosen in the coming months as landowners seek to offload land before the changes in the capital gains tax regime sees them out of pocket. However, with the credit crunch taking its toll on the City, lifestyle buyers are expected to retreat from the market."
Source : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Rush for Rural Land in Uk capital London also in Queue
Money managers in London are shopping not for weekend houses but for investments.
Investors have been snapping up farms, rural estates and other agricultural land in the U.S., Argentina, Russia and Australia for the past few years, as rising commodity prices, growing food demand from China and the push to turn crops into biofuels have made rural land there more popular. Now, the trend has spread to Britain, where investors are betting that the value of farmland -- up sharply last year -- will continue to outperform other real-estate investments.
Prices of arable land for sale in Britain rose 28% last year to about £3,446, or roughly $6,800, for about half a hectare, according to Savills PLC, a real-estate services firm based in London. In contrast, prices of residential property in the U.K. rose between 6.5% and 7% last year, says the agent, while those of commercial property fell 8.6%, according to the London real-estate-information firm IPD.
With farmland prices surging, "we've got investors and buyers desperate to get into the market," says Liam Bailey, head of research at British estate agent Knight Frank. But the volume of land that comes on the market is in short supply compared with the new demand from investors and farmers attracted by potential profits. "We've seen commodity prices shoot up, and the returns from agricultural land get very interesting," he says.
Whether funds will be able to invest in British land in a significant way remains a question. Only about 72,000 hectares of farmland are openly marketed in the U.K. each year, down about 30% from the late 1990s, says Crispin Holborow, head of Savills's farm agency. "The difficulty for the sums in investing in the U.K. is it's hard for investors to buy land. It's difficult to find," he says.
Nevertheless, farmland has been in short supply, in part because rather than sell, some farmers are looking to expand their own acreage, agents say, to benefit from the rising commodity prices. The price of wheat, Britain's biggest cereal crop, has nearly doubled in the past year, and barley is up 80%, according to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Source: http://online.wsj.com
Investors have been snapping up farms, rural estates and other agricultural land in the U.S., Argentina, Russia and Australia for the past few years, as rising commodity prices, growing food demand from China and the push to turn crops into biofuels have made rural land there more popular. Now, the trend has spread to Britain, where investors are betting that the value of farmland -- up sharply last year -- will continue to outperform other real-estate investments.
Prices of arable land for sale in Britain rose 28% last year to about £3,446, or roughly $6,800, for about half a hectare, according to Savills PLC, a real-estate services firm based in London. In contrast, prices of residential property in the U.K. rose between 6.5% and 7% last year, says the agent, while those of commercial property fell 8.6%, according to the London real-estate-information firm IPD.
With farmland prices surging, "we've got investors and buyers desperate to get into the market," says Liam Bailey, head of research at British estate agent Knight Frank. But the volume of land that comes on the market is in short supply compared with the new demand from investors and farmers attracted by potential profits. "We've seen commodity prices shoot up, and the returns from agricultural land get very interesting," he says.
Whether funds will be able to invest in British land in a significant way remains a question. Only about 72,000 hectares of farmland are openly marketed in the U.K. each year, down about 30% from the late 1990s, says Crispin Holborow, head of Savills's farm agency. "The difficulty for the sums in investing in the U.K. is it's hard for investors to buy land. It's difficult to find," he says.
Nevertheless, farmland has been in short supply, in part because rather than sell, some farmers are looking to expand their own acreage, agents say, to benefit from the rising commodity prices. The price of wheat, Britain's biggest cereal crop, has nearly doubled in the past year, and barley is up 80%, according to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Source: http://online.wsj.com
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Build on UK Green Belt land now
Our children used to have to wait until we died to get their hands on our assets, if any. Now it seems they can’t wait. They beadily eye our ridiculously overvalued homes and it is only with great restraint or great affection that they stop themselves telling us to sell immediately and hand over some capital. Surely you would be happier in something smaller, they suggest. Get out, grandma, is the message and often well before we are a grandmother.
It’s not that they are greedy. It’s that they are beginning to be desperate. Property prices have risen to such dizzying heights that most cannot hope to buy a first home without help.
The average home in England costs seven times the buyer’s earnings; as recently as 1998 it was about five times earnings, but by 2026 it will be 10 times, even if the government succeeds in its plans to promote more house building. Most young people will be unable to afford to buy their own homes at all.
This was the warning last week – if we needed a warning – of the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit, a new government think tank. At the same time the Council of Mortgage Lenders reported that nearly half of first-time buyers under 30 were getting help from their families.
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
It’s not that they are greedy. It’s that they are beginning to be desperate. Property prices have risen to such dizzying heights that most cannot hope to buy a first home without help.
The average home in England costs seven times the buyer’s earnings; as recently as 1998 it was about five times earnings, but by 2026 it will be 10 times, even if the government succeeds in its plans to promote more house building. Most young people will be unable to afford to buy their own homes at all.
This was the warning last week – if we needed a warning – of the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit, a new government think tank. At the same time the Council of Mortgage Lenders reported that nearly half of first-time buyers under 30 were getting help from their families.
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
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