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Press Release

CPRE Response to New Homes Marketing Board survey

1 December 2010

A New Homes Marketing Board (NHMB) survey conducted by YouGov has led the pro-development organisation to conclude that ‘nimbyism’ is on the rise. The survey suggests that although people understand that new homes are needed - only half the population want them in their own immediate neighbourhood.

Shaun Spiers, Chief Executive of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) commented: “The country needs more housing, particularly affordable housing. No one is denying that, and CPRE has campaigned energetically for more affordable housing in rural areas. But it really is unhelpful to label people as ‘nimbys’ for caring about the quality of their local areas.

“Yes, we need more housing. But we desperately need better quality housing. It is no surprise that people resist new developments when they see the quality of too much of the new housing built in recent years. Local people are much more likely to embrace new development if it improves their local area, if it is well-planned, well-designed and well-built.

“The NHMB should be working with the house-building industry to improve the quality of new housing, rather than picking fights with local communities.”

The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment found 82 per cent of new housing built over the last five years failing to measure up on design quality. Twenty nine per cent is assessed as poor and 53 per cent as average [1]. The leading UK housebuilders held around 240,000 housing plots with full or outline planning permission in 1998. This figure rose by 44% to 341,500 plots in 2005. However, in 2008/09 271,947 plots were owned and controlled by these housebuilders. This decline is probably mostly attributable to the financial downturn [2].

Notes:

1. http://www.cabe.org.uk/press-releases/consumers-short-changed-by-new-housing

2. CPRE analysis of data in major developers’ 2009 interim or full annual reports (Barratt, Bellway, Bovis, Miller, Persimmon, Redrow, Taylor Wimpey)



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