Forum Brief: House building

The deputy prime minister has unveiled proposals to develop industrial wastelands into the housing estates of tomorrow.

John Prescott announced plans to build tens of thousands of new homes in the South East.

Speaking at the first site to be redeveloped in the Thames Gateway, Prescott confirmed the £22 billion project will be focused on areas east of London.

Forum Response: English Partnerships

Margaret Ford, chairman of English Partnerships, said: "This is an ambitious package but the message is simple - the regeneration sector now needs to knuckle down to action and focus on the delivery of the challenging targets outlined in the Sustainable Communities Plan.

"English Partnerships will play our full part in realising this ambition."

Forum Response: Construction Products Association

Chris Bennett, external affairs executive at the Construction Products Association, told ePolitix.com: "The announcement is welcome because it addresses the fact that new housing provision is failing to keep up with the rise in household numbers and provides a long-term strategy to reverse that trend. There can be no question that there is a chronic shortage of new housing provision in the south east and that something must be done to address it.

"As we have previously commented however, we share the ODPM committee's concern that new housing provision must be serviced by trains, roads, hospitals, schools and that the plans must pay adequate attention to ensuring that this infrastructure is in place to allow true "communities" to develop.

"It is therefore crucial that there is inter-departmental coordination to ensure the provision of this infrastructure and that other departments budget ahead to ensure sufficient funding is available.

"As outlined in the Association's 'Achievable Targets: Is Government Delivering?' 2002 report, we estimate that affordable housing provision across the UK must more than double to meet the rising need by 2005/06 and the government must now set new, long-term targets to ensure that there is truly a decent home for all in the years ahead. The 2003 report will be published this autumn."

Forum Response: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors

Oliver Foster, policy officer at RICS, told ePolitix.com: "The launch of the first update on the Sustainable Communities Plan is a welcome move to bring some clarity and detail to the government's blueprint for the Thames Gateway and the three other growth areas in the South East.

"The plans are certainly ambitious and we have consistently supported the government's objective of sustainable communities. However we believe there are a number of questions that remain unanswered.

"While we welcome the fact that 80 per cent of the land earmarked for development in the Thames Gateway is brownfield, RICS urges the government to avoid sanctioning massive, sprawling estates, and we emphasise the importance for the government to outline how it plans to create a housing market in areas where non currently exists.

"If the Thames Gateway is to be made up of individual sustainable communities feeding into the London economy, it is essential that plans for Crossrailare realised. The government accepts that such major transport infrastructure is critical to harnessing the full development opportunity throughout the Gateway, and so we stress the importance for the government to outline where the £5 billion shortfall is to come from for this project.

"We support the government in its aim to ensure that as much of the proposed development as possible in all four growth areas is delivered through local consultation rather than central government diktat. The involvement of Urban Development Corporations is therefore welcome, but we urge the government toensure that they will have the power to overcome local authority domination and actually deliver results quickly.

"The Sustainable Communities Plan was originally introduced on the premise that the private sector will be intrinsically and heavily involved throughout. This document refers to government plans to lever private sector investment, but it is now necessary for the government to provide detailed evidence of the level of private sector commitment required to generate the 180,000 new jobs envisaged in the Gateway and 150,000 in Milton Keynes/South Midlands."