Campaign update
The not so green eco-towns
Last year, Gordon Brown announced plans to build up to 100,000 homes in five eco-towns. Each town would contain between 5,000 – 20,000 homes. More recently, ministers have said that up to ten will be chosen. The shortlist now stands at twelve after the withdrawal of three schemes.
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Affordable housing
CPRE research examined the link between housing land supply, housebuilding and affordability. The study found that releasing more land for housing would make little different to house prices. It highlights that good planning is crucial to ensure that new development enhances, rather than diminishes, our surroundings. Areas studied, which included popular areas with a high demand for new homes, had more than adequate amounts of land allocated, well in excess of housebuilding rates. You can find out more in our report: Planning for Housing Affordability.
We have also worked closely with Matthew Taylor MP on his review of rural affordable housing. Our briefing welcomes many of the recommendations of the review, and offers our own ideas for affordable housing in rural areas.
Rural housing
Some of the worst housing problems are in the countryside, in popular places where house prices have soared far, far out of reach of people doing ordinary jobs on lower incomes. Often these are people whose work is connected to their local countryside, but who have to move away and commute long distances in order to obtain affordable housing. Young people who want to live and work in the area they grew up in also struggle to afford a place of their own. CPRE supports an increase in the number of affordable homes in rural areas for local people on lower incomes, provided they are needed and are well planned so that they enhance rural communities. We participated in the work of the Government’s Affordable Rural Housing Commission, set up to examine the problem. We welcomed its final report and called on the Government to implement its recommendations.
We have updated our joint charter with the National Housing Federation (which represents 1400 not-for-profit housing associations who provide homes for around 5 million people in England) which calls on the Government to take action.
Plans for 3 million new homes
Right now, we are focused on the Government's housing plans. This includes a target for 3 million new homes to be built by 2020 and a housebuilding rate of 240,000 homes a year by 2010/11. This target is looking increasingly unachievable under the current market downturn. We strongly welcome the commitment to building 45,000 affordable social rented homes a year by 2010/11 and targets for rural settlements. We are campaigning for policies which protect the countryside, deliver greener buildings and prioritise development of urban brownfield sites — as the Government says it wants. Our response to 2007's Housing Green Paper made recommendations to help ensure that new development delivers public benefits with minimal harm to the environment.
Planning Policy Statement on Housing (PPS3)
Last year the Government issued a new new 'Planning Policy Statement on Housing' (PPS3). The policy was issued following pressure from developers, business interests and the Treasury to raise housebuilding rates in the hope that this will slow the rate at which house prices rise. The Government hopes that if councils and developers implement the new planning policy, housebuilding levels will increase. PPS3 replaced the former planning policy on housing (PPG3), issued in 2000.
CPRE strongly supported the clear priority this policy gave to using previously developed brownfield sites before developing on greenfields. Since PPG3 came into force the level of housebuilding has risen and so have the number of planning permissions granted for new homes, giving the lie to claims that a brownfield first approach would slow housebuilding.
Our campaigning improved the draft planning policy
The final version of planning policy PPS3 is not as bad as it could have been, thanks to strong campaigning by CPRE and several other organisations. It contains welcome measures on affordable housing and has a commendable approach to design. But we still face serious challenges, particularly in the new rules councils must follow when allocating land for housing. We are seeking to influence how the policy is applied in practice.
What the changes mean in practice
Under the new approach local councils face considerable pressure to release more land for housing and increase housebuilding in areas of high demand. We face the prospect of many more growth areas. While development of brownfield land is still emphasised, councils are not being given the powers they need to achieve a brownfield first approach in practice. The emphasis on meeting demand where it arises could lead to more development on greenfields than under the previous approach.
