Member News
By Robert Buckland MP - 21st June 2010
Conservative MP Robert Buckland writes for ePolitix.com ahead of his adjournment debate on housing development in Swindon.
I'm delighted to have secured a debate on housing development in Swindon, because the issue for us is one of real local concern. For those who look for glamour and excitement in their politics, planning and housing development has not traditionally been their first choice. Even amongst politicians, eyes will all too often glaze over at the mention of housing targets, spatial strategies and local authority core structure reports. Yet decisions made about planning and development goes straight to the heart of the so-called "quality of life" debate.
The way in which we make provision for growth and development is the crucial issue for our environment, for our infrastructure and for our way of life. After the depressing centralist approach of Labour, with its Regional Spatial Strategies, housing targets and lack of local participation, the coalition has started well in indicating clearly its intention to scrap the RSS.
In Swindon, housing development has proceeded at a breathtaking pace, even allowing for the recession. Although we are nowhere near the heady highs of the mid part of the last decade, average house completions in Swindon have averaged at about 1100-1200 per year for the last fifteen years.
Swindon has benefited hugely from development and expansion, but in recent years serious questions have been asked about the town's ability to grow sustainably. Two development areas, one to the north and the other to the south, are still ongoing. The Regional Spatial Strategy meant that 37,000 homes had been laid down as a target for the Borough by 2026. We are facing the earmarking of land east of the A419 for an overly dense and inappropriate allocation of 12,000 houses; and to the west, in Wiltshire, land for thousands more houses immediately adjoining West Swindon is being set aside. Already, we are seeing developers make planning applications. The prospect of large scale growth without any proper infrastructure is all too real for residents.
Central government is bringing about real changes to planning, but it is also time for councils to start work on their own figures and to adopt positions that allow for organic growth without reference to artificial numbers or timescales that, thanks to economic recession, are wholly out of date. I know that in Swindon, the planning authority is keen for a change of approach. However, what also needs to be done is the scrapping of the system of five year land supply provision, which local authorities are bound by law to maintain. It would be tragic if, despite the excellent work of the coalition in freeing up councils to make local decisions, they were still hoist by this particular petard.
Local planning, with incentives for allowing development and working with neighbouring councils to deliver growth figures for the Swindon travel to work area, represents the best way forward for a sustainable Swindon that will work well for all its residents and businesses.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd