Building poser (From York Press)

Surely the fact that the real volume house builders in York – Persimmon, Shepherd, Taylor-Wimpey and Barratt are not building anything automatically answers your question.

Graham Tissiman writes from a position of both experience, but, also of bias. He is, I believe a council officer - dealing with affordable housing - what a surprise ?

Despite him being aware of the repetitous nature of the letters by those who criticise the AH policy, he seems to forget the overwhelming evidence they use to back up their argument. This is of course, the statistics on housing completions and planning consents. The facts - that in 2011/12 a record low of c.352 dwellings were completed, and for the two previous years, only 182 and 198 homes received planning permission - speak for themselves. The Council's target in it's now withdrawn Core Strategy is, 635/yr from 2011/12 - 2015/16 and 835/yr from 2016/17 to 2026/27, an average of 786/yr. This shows how the housing policies are failing, and further proof are all the sites that have not been started or have stopped, like, Hungate, Terry's, Nestle, Grain Stores, Germany Beck, and Shipton Street.

The reason that the large national housebuilders do not make comments is because they usually have policies forbidding representations at local level, and any lobbying is done at national level through their membership of the HBF.
The fact that Persimmon and Barratt are not building sites in York, when in the past they have usually had several on the go at the same time, is yet further proof that sites are not viable in York.

I am surprised that Mr Tissiman has not disclosed his council officer position, and wonder who put him up to this ?

So the Strensall project - is it based on a forced sale?

TheTruthHurts wrote:
Surely the fact that the real volume house builders in York – Persimmon, Shepherd, Taylor-Wimpey and Barratt are not building anything automatically answers your question.

Shepherd and Taylor-Wimpey, are actually building the only major private-sector site at Revival, Tadcaster Road.

David Wilson (owned by Barratt) are building the first phase of Derwenthorpe for the site owners, Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust.

Barratt and Persimmon are not building any sites of their own in the city.

Persimmon and Hogg have a joint interest in the Germany Beck site, and it's failure to start is rumoured to be because the council are still asking for too much social (affordable) housing.

Anyone who has lived in York for the last twenty years knows that housebuilding is at it's lowest levels for at least this period, and for decades beyond the last twenty-years. Graham Tissiman has worked at the council for all this period, so why hasn't he been paying attention ? It just shows how out of touch the council are when it's own officers don't have any local knowledge of housebuilding, and it's their job - UNBELIEVABLE !

lis0r wrote:
So the Strensall project - is it based on a forced sale?

Which one ?

The 125-home site to be applied for by Hogg, is land owned by the company. The amount of affordable required by the council is 35% on this greenfield site, but, I am certain that Hogg's will not be offering anywhere near this level.

The Tannery site may not be a forced sale, but, it's owners have been trying to sell it for many years and may have run out of patience, or need the money.

lis0r wrote:
So the Strensall project - is it based on a forced sale?

Which one ?

The 125-home site to be applied for by Hogg, is land owned by the company. The amount of affordable required by the council is 35% on this greenfield site, but, I am certain that Hogg's will not be offering anywhere near this level.

The Tannery site may not be a forced sale, but, it's owners have been trying to sell it for many years and may have run out of patience, or need the money.

Graham Tissiman not mentioning what he does for a living and writing this letter confirms to me what i have suspected for a long time .

York Council and its politicised officers are as bad as the Russian Politbureau Feed the people what we want them to know and definately not the truth, no dont let the truth get in the way.
Tissiman you are a disgrace.

TheTruthHurts wrote:
Surely the fact that the real volume house builders in York – Persimmon, Shepherd, Taylor-Wimpey and Barratt are not building anything automatically answers your question.

Answers the question, it does nothing of the sort. The fact that these companies are currently not building here could arise from any number of factors. What does speak volumes is that they have not backed the Laverack campaign.
And another thing, why have we heard nothing form Matthew L's alter ego Sperare e Corregio (spag Bol) ? Has he been banned ?

Jezreel wrote:

TheTruthHurts wrote: Surely the fact that the real volume house builders in York – Persimmon, Shepherd, Taylor-Wimpey and Barratt are not building anything automatically answers your question.

Answers the question, it does nothing of the sort. The fact that these companies are currently not building here could arise from any number of factors. What does speak volumes is that they have not backed the Laverack campaign. And another thing, why have we heard nothing form Matthew L's alter ego Sperare e Corregio (spag Bol) ? Has he been banned ?

Another who is in denial and ignores the facts.

What other factors are stopping Barratt and Persimmon building in York, whilst they continue to build tens of thousands of homes all over the country ?

The largest PLC housebuilders do not complain to local councils by using the letters page of the Press, and will seldom comment other than on specific sites/applications and even then they are diplomatic. They complain by other means, like taking their investment to council areas where policies make housebuilding viable, which is not in York !

Jezreel wrote:

TheTruthHurts wrote:
Surely the fact that the real volume house builders in York – Persimmon, Shepherd, Taylor-Wimpey and Barratt are not building anything automatically answers your question.

Answers the question, it does nothing of the sort. The fact that these companies are currently not building here could arise from any number of factors. What does speak volumes is that they have not backed the Laverack campaign.
And another thing, why have we heard nothing form Matthew L's alter ego Sperare e Corregio (spag Bol) ? Has he been banned ?

Here we go again, anything you can use to have a go at Matthew Laverack and off you go.
Liz you are getting pathetic in your dotage and you are just plain wrong.
Put your proper glasses on if you can remember where you put them and read Mr Crabtrees explanation as to why the volume housebuilders make no comment.

Has Sperare e Corregio been banned ? No , but you will be soon if you carry on with this Vendetta.

Graham Tissiman says that there are sites being built with 25% affordable. The only one seems to be Ouseacres by Linden Homes. They are also buying a site from the council on Huntington Road - a site not offered on the open market, but one where Linden have applied for 32 homes with 25% affordable. What a coincidence, a site that the council owned, being sold through the back door to the only developer building a new site with 25% affordable - surely it's not a deal that the council are subsidising by selling a site on the cheap to prop up it's own policy ?

Even if it is, it still proves nothing, as this is the exception, not the rule.

Only when York is achieving it's 786 dwellings per year average target will prove that York has a workable policy. Until then York is NOT OPEN FOR HOUSEBUILDING BUSINESS !

Matthew you may have answered your own question when you say
"What other factors are stopping Barratt and Persimmon building in York, whilst they continue to build tens of thousands of homes all over the country ?"
The fact (as you point out) that they are overstreatched elsewhere is the probable answer, or perhaps there is nothing in York that complies with their business profile. There are any number of possible reasons.

Jezreel wrote:
Matthew you may have answered your own question when you say "What other factors are stopping Barratt and Persimmon building in York, whilst they continue to build tens of thousands of homes all over the country ?" The fact (as you point out) that they are overstreatched elsewhere is the probable answer, or perhaps there is nothing in York that complies with their business profile. There are any number of possible reasons.

What a load of rubbish !

They are not overstretched. Barratt built 18,588 new homes in 2008, but, for the last three years have been building between 11,000 - 12,000/year.

Their business profile is simple - build houses where there is demand, provided local house prices, land prices and council policies make it viable. In York there is massive demand, house prices are high, but, the council's affordable housing policy means no land owners will sell at the silly low prices the council expects to justify their unworkable, greedy AH targets.

You clearly know nothing about housebuilding, or the economics of it - just like the idiot Labour Councillors and their politicised officer sidekicks like Graham Tissiman !

Matthew,
Try the acid test. Stand for the council

Further to last comment on Jezreel's 'overstretched' excuse.

Persimmon built 16,701 new homes in 2006, but, have only being building an average of 9,250/year for the last three years.

Both Barratt and Persimmon have the capability to build more, and certainly would build in York where both have offices, if only the council's policies were workable.

York Council's affordable housing policy is to blame for the lack of new homes being built in the city.

Graham Tissiman has done a dishonest and deceiptful thing in writing a letter to the press purporting to be a normal member of the public.
His subject which he clearly has full knowledge of as a serving council officer sugests he is an outsider, but no he is not.
That Mr Tissiman is dishonest and deceiptful. You and the person who put you up to it should resign. You are not fit for purpose.

Jezreel wrote:
Matthew, Try the acid test. Stand for the council

What would one architect being on the council achieve ?

It would be a waste of Matthew's time. He wants to see housebuilding recover, and one man of knowledge on the subject being on the council would not achieve anything. York has 47 councillors, and you need at least 24 of them to be in the same pruling party and all wanting housebuilding to recover. That is the only way they might stand a chance of changing policy. I say 'might' because Selby is controlled by the conservatives, but, left-wing officers there, are ruling the roost when it comes to affordable housing policy. The problem is not just at councillor level, it is politicised officers who are running things at many councils.

highhat wrote:
Graham Tissiman has done a dishonest and deceiptful thing in writing a letter to the press purporting to be a normal member of the public.
His subject which he clearly has full knowledge of as a serving council officer sugests he is an outsider, but no he is not.
That Mr Tissiman is dishonest and deceiptful. You and the person who put you up to it should resign. You are not fit for purpose.

Oh and did I say,
Your a cad and a bounder.
Your average footpad has more honesty than you.

After making an enquiry to the Council, I have just found that Graham Tissiman was an officer with the title, 'Housing Development Coordinator', but he left on 14th September.

It looks like he has a continued interest in housing matters, but, is still as clueless as the politicised officers who probably put him up to writing this letter !

Jezreel

You may be interested to know that Persimmon's Chief Executive, Mike Farley said in a recent interview that the company had the capacity to build 14,000 homes a year, but, were building less than 10,000. So, plenty of spare capacity, which blows your excuses out of the water !
,

My excuses ? I have never offered excuses. I merely explained that there could be many reasons why a company is not building in York at any particular time, other than the (one) reason Matthew offers.

Hows about standing for council Matthew, you've got my vote.

Jezreel wrote:

TheTruthHurts wrote:
Surely the fact that the real volume house builders in York – Persimmon, Shepherd, Taylor-Wimpey and Barratt are not building anything automatically answers your question.

Answers the question, it does nothing of the sort. The fact that these companies are currently not building here could arise from any number of factors. What does speak volumes is that they have not backed the Laverack campaign.
And another thing, why have we heard nothing form Matthew L's alter ego Sperare e Corregio (spag Bol) ? Has he been banned ?

Come on then lets have some of these other factors.

Jezreel wrote:
My excuses ? I have never offered excuses. I merely explained that there could be many reasons why a company is not building in York at any particular time, other than the (one) reason Matthew offers. Hows about standing for council Matthew, you've got my vote.

The only reasons are related to viability and land values, both of which are impacted on by the council's affordable housing policy.

Housebuilders won't build as long as the affordable housing policy has unworkable targets and landowners won't sell at the silly prices that the council use in their affordable housing viability study.

If Jezreel is such an expert, she will list the other 'reasons', and by not doing so, it will prove that she was bluffing - like Labour Councillors (existing and former) do all of the time !

The ex-housing department bloke who wrote the letter has probably been busting to blow a hole in this nonsense for ages. Now he is free to do so and nobody can answer his point about Hogg building all those homes, 25% of them affordable housing. I'm afraid he has holed you below the water line Matthew.
By the way, you are backing off on the Liz Edge business? All will be revealed soon, so place your bet. Am I Liz Edge? am I even female, have I ever been a labour councillor or even a labour voter? Lets see if your finely honed intellect and forensic powers of observation lead you to the right judgement on this as on so many other things things.
Edgy Liz

highhat wrote:
Graham Tissiman has done a dishonest and deceiptful thing in writing a letter to the press purporting to be a normal member of the public.
His subject which he clearly has full knowledge of as a serving council officer sugests he is an outsider, but no he is not.
That Mr Tissiman is dishonest and deceiptful. You and the person who put you up to it should resign. You are not fit for purpose.

In fairness, he has used his real name.

Jezreel wrote:
The ex-housing department bloke who wrote the letter has probably been busting to blow a hole in this nonsense for ages. Now he is free to do so and nobody can answer his point about Hogg building all those homes, 25% of them affordable housing. I'm afraid he has holed you below the water line Matthew.
By the way, you are backing off on the Liz Edge business? All will be revealed soon, so place your bet. Am I Liz Edge? am I even female, have I ever been a labour councillor or even a labour voter? Lets see if your finely honed intellect and forensic powers of observation lead you to the right judgement on this as on so many other things things.
Edgy Liz

I am convinced you are and i dont think you are a very nice person.

Even AndyD wrote:

highhat wrote:
Graham Tissiman has done a dishonest and deceiptful thing in writing a letter to the press purporting to be a normal member of the public.
His subject which he clearly has full knowledge of as a serving council officer sugests he is an outsider, but no he is not.
That Mr Tissiman is dishonest and deceiptful. You and the person who put you up to it should resign. You are not fit for purpose.

In fairness, he has used his real name.

He's an ex-council housing officer, and I suspect that he has been put up to this by his ex-colleagues.

His letter makes no substantive points to justify the unworkable targets. Saying that the large builders don't criticise the policy openly through the Press proves nothing. He is inferring that because they don't do this, they are possibly giving tacit approval. This is rubbish. The only thing that shows that they don't object, is if they build houses in the city, which they do not, therefore this is a clear sign of disapproval.

It is patronising of Mr Tissiman to belittle the writers of letters who criticise the policy. Some of these individuals know more about the large companies than their employees.

Even AndyD wrote:

highhat wrote:
Graham Tissiman has done a dishonest and deceiptful thing in writing a letter to the press purporting to be a normal member of the public.
His subject which he clearly has full knowledge of as a serving council officer sugests he is an outsider, but no he is not.
That Mr Tissiman is dishonest and deceiptful. You and the person who put you up to it should resign. You are not fit for purpose.

In fairness, he has used his real name.

Unlike you!!!!!!

Jezreel wrote:
The ex-housing department bloke who wrote the letter has probably been busting to blow a hole in this nonsense for ages. Now he is free to do so and nobody can answer his point about Hogg building all those homes, 25% of them affordable housing. I'm afraid he has holed you below the water line Matthew.
By the way, you are backing off on the Liz Edge business? All will be revealed soon, so place your bet. Am I Liz Edge? am I even female, have I ever been a labour councillor or even a labour voter? Lets see if your finely honed intellect and forensic powers of observation lead you to the right judgement on this as on so many other things things.
Edgy Liz

He has not blown a hole in anything, other than the one in his foot !

Read the letter again. He did not say Hoggs are providing 25%. They have not made the planning application yet, and as the land is a greenfield site it is subject to a 35% affordable target.

Once again, Jezreel proves nothing other than his/her inability to understand the issue, and his/her complete ignorance about this issue.

Jezreel wrote:
The ex-housing department bloke who wrote the letter has probably been busting to blow a hole in this nonsense for ages. Now he is free to do so and nobody can answer his point about Hogg building all those homes, 25% of them affordable housing. I'm afraid he has holed you below the water line Matthew.
By the way, you are backing off on the Liz Edge business? All will be revealed soon, so place your bet. Am I Liz Edge? am I even female, have I ever been a labour councillor or even a labour voter? Lets see if your finely honed intellect and forensic powers of observation lead you to the right judgement on this as on so many other things things.
Edgy Liz

You are Liz edge as you say an ex labour councilor 69 yrs of age with a dodgy history degree.
Why dodgy ! because your knowledge of the royal family who you loathe is scant to say the least and your factual knowledge is confined to the Bunty book of Royalty.

Your bile and loathing of anything logical stands out as a carbuncle on this forum and your hatred of of Mr Laverack is now becoming legendary.

I hope your not stalking him as well.

Do us a favour Liz ......retire gracefully, slip into your pension and give us a rest............you really are a pain.

Jezreel wrote:
The ex-housing department bloke who wrote the letter has probably been busting to blow a hole in this nonsense for ages. Now he is free to do so and nobody can answer his point about Hogg building all those homes, 25% of them affordable housing. I'm afraid he has holed you below the water line Matthew.
By the way, you are backing off on the Liz Edge business? All will be revealed soon, so place your bet. Am I Liz Edge? am I even female, have I ever been a labour councillor or even a labour voter? Lets see if your finely honed intellect and forensic powers of observation lead you to the right judgement on this as on so many other things things.
Edgy Liz

You are Liz edge as you say an ex labour councilor 69 yrs of age with a dodgy history degree.
Why dodgy ! because your knowledge of the royal family who you loathe is scant to say the least and your factual knowledge is confined to the Bunty book of Royalty.

Your bile and loathing of anything logical stands out as a carbuncle on this forum and your hatred of of Mr Laverack is now becoming legendary.

I hope your not stalking him as well.

Do us a favour Liz ......retire gracefully, slip into your pension and give us a rest............you really are a pain.

Persimmon's latest results were announced today, and the Press has an article about this. Here are some of the facts......

65 new sites opened in the first half of the year - NONE IN YORK !

375 sites in operation - NONE IN YORK !

They have invested in 5,600 new plots of land - NONE IN YORK !

They plan to open another 60 sites in the second half of the year - NONE IN YORK !

York-based Persimmon, building throughout the UK, but, - NOT IN YORK !

Are you getting the message Coun Simpson-Laing ?

How many more times do York Council need to be told that their affordable housing policy targets are the reason Persimmon and other are not building houses in York ? !!!

highhat wrote:

Even AndyD wrote:

highhat wrote: Graham Tissiman has done a dishonest and deceiptful thing in writing a letter to the press purporting to be a normal member of the public. His subject which he clearly has full knowledge of as a serving council officer sugests he is an outsider, but no he is not. That Mr Tissiman is dishonest and deceiptful. You and the person who put you up to it should resign. You are not fit for purpose.

In fairness, he has used his real name.

Unlike you!!!!!!

That's very unfair.
EvenAndyD gave a detailed account of himself a couple of weeks ago, he knew his self description could expose him publicly but he said it was worth it to connect with another user of this site.

Mr Tissiman gave his name, you all googled it and posted your findings on here. That's fair.

Graham Tissiman knows more about the Council's affordable housing policy stitch-up system than he lets on.

Don't be taken in by the sales pitch that Coun Simpson-Laing spouts, saying the targets are negotiable. They are not. The Council refers the land values to the Valuation Officer who is in cahoots with the council. He then tells the council that the developer is paying too much, and to go back and renegotiate, so the council get more affordable housing. They are like the mafia, using these tactics to hold builders to ransom and to extort greedy levels of AH. The end result, is an impasse and nothing gets built.

Mr Tissiman knows full well that the 25% site he alludes to is a one-off, and that Hogg's will not be agreeing to 35% on their Strensall site. It's all desperate propaganda and spin as the council are in the mire with this, and they know it.

You can add the job up quickly and simply.

There are no large housebuilding companies building any new sites in York.

There are many large housebuilding companies building new sites just about everywhere else.

There must be something wrong in York.

mickrick wrote:

Jezreel wrote:
The ex-housing department bloke who wrote the letter has probably been busting to blow a hole in this nonsense for ages. Now he is free to do so and nobody can answer his point about Hogg building all those homes, 25% of them affordable housing. I'm afraid he has holed you below the water line Matthew.
By the way, you are backing off on the Liz Edge business? All will be revealed soon, so place your bet. Am I Liz Edge? am I even female, have I ever been a labour councillor or even a labour voter? Lets see if your finely honed intellect and forensic powers of observation lead you to the right judgement on this as on so many other things things.
Edgy Liz

You are Liz edge as you say an ex labour councilor 69 yrs of age with a dodgy history degree.
Why dodgy ! because your knowledge of the royal family who you loathe is scant to say the least and your factual knowledge is confined to the Bunty book of Royalty.

Your bile and loathing of anything logical stands out as a carbuncle on this forum and your hatred of of Mr Laverack is now becoming legendary.

I hope your not stalking him as well.

Do us a favour Liz ......retire gracefully, slip into your pension and give us a rest............you really are a pain.

They do say there is a very fine line between love and hate.
'
Mr Laverack I think you may have an admirer.

Mr Laverack has many admirers. He is the most loved character in the city (apart from Terry Smith). Just ask Jezreel. Any mention of the Architect of this Parish and she rushes to the keyboard to renew her vows.
Then there's Malcom and Zetkin and all the other crew. They just love him and can't wait for another of his letters to be published. Apparently Mr Laverack appreciates their concern so much that he makes a special effort to keep pumping out those letters so he doesn't disappoint his fan club.