MPs Highlight Sprawl Threat From New Government Policy On Housing

20 June 2006

In a long-awaited report published today (Tuesday), an influential committee of MPs criticises the Government’s proposed changes to planning policy for housing as likely to encourage development on green fields and undermine urban renewal.

Commenting on the ODPM Select Committee’s Report on Affordability and the Supply of Housing [1], Henry Oliver, CPRE’s [2] Head of Planning, said:

‘The Committee’s report highlights the need to make sure councils have sufficient powers to stop developers cherry-picking greenfield sites while undermining the regeneration of our towns and cities.

‘In recommending changes to proposed planning policies, the Report directly echoes CPRE’s concerns about their effect on urban renewal and greenfield sprawl [3]. Whether or not the Government retains the “sequential” brownfield-first approach to planning for housing in the final policy will be a key test of whether it’s serious about the environment or just paying lip service.

‘In addition, in a blow to the approach advocated by Kate Barker and adopted by the Government, the Committee dismisses the idea that a simplistic supply and demand model can be applied to the housing market.

‘We share the Committee’s and the Government’s concern about the shortage of affordable housing, and we’re pleased that the Committee accepts that simply building more houses for sale is unlikely to make a serious dent in affordability.

‘We strongly endorse the Committee’s call for the Government to examine a range of strategies other than building more houses, that might address the issue of affordability.’ [4]

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. House of Commons ODPM: Housing, Planning Local Government and the Regions Committee: Affordability and the Supply of Housing, Third report of session 2005-6 (ISBN 0 215 02926 7). Available from the Stationery Office Ltd., tel. 08457 023474.

Other recommendations in the Committee’s Report that CPRE strongly supports include:

– better strategic planning so that housebuilding makes use of capacity in low demand areas, helping reduce development pressure on areas of high demand nearby (paragraph 104);

– a 600% increase in the Government’s target for reducing long-term empty homes (paragraph 112);

– reduction of VAT on all empty buildings (paragraph 113);

– an emphasis on the ‘overwhelming need’ to boost the supply of affordable rented housing (paragraph 32);

– wider use of Landscape Character Assessment in planning (paragraph 152);

– action to address the problem of second homes in affected parts of the countryside (paragraph 24);

– concentration of new housing close to urban centres and employment, to prevent sprawl and increased commuting (paragraph 106);

– inclusion of the new Department for Communities and Local Government in the Government’s Public Service Agreement on Climate Change (paragraph 146); and

– more demanding environmental standards for new and existing homes, with a move to mandatory standards and incentives to adapt existing stock (paragraphs 157, 158 and 168).

Notwithstanding these positive recommendations, CPRE believes that the Committee’s analysis is flawed in its unquestioning acceptance of the Government’s shift to centralised, top-down housing targets driven by future projections of household formation based on past trends (e.g. paragraphs 6, 9). It also appears not to question the sheer scale of development proposed in the wider South East (e.g. paragraph 152), preferring an attempt to mitigate environmental damage to one which would avoid it in the first place by placing development within the context of an assessment of the region’s environmental capacity to accommodate it.

2. CPRE, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, is a charity which promotes the beauty, tranquillity and diversity of rural England. We advocate positive solutions for the long-term future of the countryside. Founded in 1926, we have 60,000 supporters and a branch in every county. President: Sir Max Hastings. Patron: Her Majesty The Queen.

3. Consultation closed on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's draft Planning Policy Statement 3 Housing (PPS3) on 27 February. The final version is expected this summer. A copy of CPRE's response to the consultation can be obtained from the CPRE press office or downloaded from CPRE's website.

4. Paragraphs 45-53, 56 and 62.

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