It’s Official! Housing should be concentrated in towns, instead of concreting over the countryside. Who says so? Minister for Housing Michael Gove and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak came out strongly against more greenfield development on 24 July this year. They also said that local communities should be involved, to make sure housing developments were wanted and accepted. So why are Mid Sussex ignoring them – and ignoring us?
Overview
The speech was called ‘A Long-term Plan for Housing’. It begins with a list of 10 principles:
- The regeneration and renaissance of the hearts of 20 of our most important towns and cities
- Supercharging Europe’s science capital (Cambridge)
- Building beautiful – and making architecture great again
- Building great public services in the heart of every community
- Communities taking back control of their future
- Greener homes, greener landscapes and green belt protection
- A new deal for tenants and landlords
- Ensuring that every home is safe, decent and warm
- Liberating leaseholders
- Extending ownership to a new generation.
Relevant to Mid Sussex, in particular Albourne/Sayers Common
The following concentrates on the sections of the speech relevant to Mid Sussex and in particular possible developments in Albourne/Sayers Common.
Regeneration of 20 places
The government will concentrate its biggest efforts in the hearts of cities ‘because that is the right thing to do economically, environmentally and culturally’. Cities are where the demand for houses is greatest. Urban regeneration should be prioritised, ‘rather than swallowing up virgin land…that is why we will enable brownfield development rather than green belt erosion, sustainable growth rather than suburban sprawl’. Everything points to ‘a move away from land-hungry destruction of natural habitats in favour of a much more efficient regeneration of our cities’.
In recent years the rates of house building in rural areas have been greater than in urban areas. In cities, the population densities are much lower than comparable competitor Western nations. Development of cities would reduce average commuting times, improve productivity and quality of life, and help with climate change.
Developers aiming to build on greenfield sites will have to pay more – to provide for the new affordable housing and the infrastructure necessary in the areas where there just aren’t the roads, GP surgeries, the schools and shops already in place. (However, note that to ease the cost for development, the forthcoming Bill will aim to eliminate the ‘hope value’ that landowners and property speculators try to extract from any sale. Hope value describes the market value of land based on the expectation of getting planning permission for development on it, as opposed to the existing use value. The consultation which began on 25 July – see below – appears to address this in Chapter 13: Community Land Auctions).
Building beautiful and making architecture great again
‘To achieve success….we need homes that are accepted and wanted by their local communities. And core to that acceptance must be a philosophy of community-led housing that is beautifully designed to match local character, has local input, and respects the local environment.’ An Office for Place will be established, to ensure that new places are created in accordance with the very best design principles. ‘For the first time, communities will be able to demand from developers what they find beautiful, and banish what they find ugly’.
Communities taking back control of their future
Gove does, however, support the creation of sizable developments, provided they are properly planned and designed. ‘More garden towns and villages … that is critical to our future’. The process for updating local (district) plans will be simplified and speeded up. There will be more investment in planning, and help to unblock developments which are stuck.
Press Release
A press release was given on the same day. The key quotes are:
- ‘Rather than concreting over the countryside, the government will focus on prioritising building in inner-city areas where demand is highest and growth is being constrained’
- ‘We have set out a plan today to build the right homes in the right places where there is community support’
- ‘At the heart of this is making sure we build beautiful and empower communities to have a say in the development in their area’
- ‘Community support is vital in making these plans a success and the Housing Secretary has been clear any developments must be beautiful, come with the right infrastructure and designed with locals in mind’
- ‘Office for Place – a new body will be launched today to lead a design revolution and ensure local people have a say in how housing is designed’
- There will be‘A consultation on reforming local plans, to make them simpler, shorter and more visual, showing clearly what is planned in local areas so communities can engage’
NB: The consultation, entitled “Plan-making reforms: consultation on implementation” began on 25 July and runs until 18 October.