A roof over their heads

The government misses the target yet again

Reform of the planning system is smoke-screen for further support for large developers.

If the aim is to encourage more house building, the government should address land-banking on the part of the building industry.

Rather than grease the path to more and easier approvals, the major developers should be made to build what they already have permission to do.

The last government white paper was entitled, ‘the broken housing market’. Where markets are broken, the solution is not to encourage yet more exploitation which is what these reforms provide for.

The real scandal is that by centralising decision-making, the government withdraws from direct and representative action, leaving the provision of new homes in the hands of unaccountable bureaucrats and unscrupulous developers.

The Cornish dimension

For Cornwall, the situation is critical. Within the reform plan are proposals to allocate new developments in direct proportion to the existing housing stock regardless of local circumstances. Cornwall will be required to increase housing availability from 2,625 to 4,000 pa from 2021 (the 5 year anniversary of the Cornwall Local Plan). In Cornwall there is a disproportionate number of second homes. These proposals will naturally further increase their number and along with this, raise the average price of homes.

Similarly, the reforms do nothing to rebalance infrastructure needs. The peninsular nature of Cornwall means that communities need more local services that in other areas of the country. It takes one and three quarter hours to drive across Cornwall from Penzance to Plymouth and up to two hours by train. Since the only Cornish A&E hospital cannot take trauma cases, if you have a serious accident in Penzance that’s how long it will take to treat you, that is, if there is room to treat you in Plymouth.

As well as being a great place to enjoy nature’s bounty, Cornwall is an area of low wages. This means that the national housing shortage and the relatively high average price of homes mitigates against those who need accommodation locally.

Conservation areas, listed buildings and neighbourhood development plans are all slated for review under these reforms. There are also plans within the reform proposals to offer developers new incentives to build on Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Cornwall’s character is not going to be sustained by Westminster zoning imperatives and insensitive housing design. The proposal that developers can build a small number of standard designs all over the country dilutes the individuality of regions and side-lines local preferences.

What’s really needed

The planning system does need reform but not this way.

It needs to join up building plans with dependent services. Currently, there is no way to account for construction disruption, water and other utility provision, let alone the essential provision for employment, shopping, transportation, education and medical care when planning applications are being considered. The developer whilst being anxious to make a profit is required to have little or no concern for anything else.

The planning system pays lip service to the affordability of homes (whose status is further downgraded through these proposals) and has nothing to say about issues of tenue other than house purchase. There is no mention of the word ‘rent’ in the reform documents.

Summary

These reforms are clearly intended to grease the palms of crony developers and further widen the gap between those with capital and those without. The solution to housing deprivation has many faces, none of which are present in this legislation. Amongst the broader measures which should be considered are:

· renovations should attract no VAT;

· conversion of commercial premises should be properly regulated to avoid hovels being created;

· social housing (that is ones people on low wages can afford) should replace the joke that is 'affordable homes';

· rental tenancy should have more security;

· and most important of all, the control freakery that is the present government mantra should give way to planning devolution so that the need can be locally understood and the solutions realised.

Below, social housing in Cornwall.