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Muse To Perform Will Of The People
Oldham Council has named Muse as its development partner to bring forward a community approved new neighbourhood in the town centre, complete with 2,000...
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Will Gove’s Reforms Solve The Housing Crisis?
Michael Gove, with the backing of PM Rishi Sunak, has outlined his long-term, ten-point plan to ‘build a better Britain’, with new homes the main focus. We have the views of those who think it is a good plan…and those who are a bit more cynical.
Richard Beresford, chief executive of the National Federation of Builders (NFB), says: “It is fantastic to have positive housing policy back in public discourse.”
Gove, the Secretary for State at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, presented his plans via a speech that was broadcast on Twitter.
Beresford continues: “However, after seeing many planning reforms come and go, it felt like another tweak which didn’t address the core reasons we have a housing crisis.”
Gove’s ten-point plan focused on the following elements:
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Regenerating 20 of our most important towns and cities.
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Supercharging Cambridge as Europe’s Science Capital.
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Building beautiful and making architecture great again.
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Building great public services into the heart of every community.
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Communities taking control of planning consents.
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Greener homes, greener landscapes and green belt protection.
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A new deal for tenants and landlords.
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Ensuring every home is safe, decent, and warm.
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Liberating leaseholders.
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Extending ownership to a new generation.
The speech delved deeper into the ten points, citing how policies would achieve their ambition. For example, permitted development reforms to assist with regeneration, and an expert planning team to deliver spatial plans in Cambridge.
House Builders Association
Rico Wojtulewicz, head of housing and planning policy at the House Builders Association (HBA) says: “Design codes, spatial placemaking for Cambridge, self and community build, more social housing, nutrient neutrality reforms, Office for Place, extra funding for planners, Homes England getting planning powers, and permitted development right reforms should all be applauded.
”These policies deliver a mechanism to fix a broken system through a mix of planning certainty, land use potential, tackling unfair regulations and more homes delivered in local areas. Whilst these are good, substantive approaches, policies to fix the true cause of the housing crisis have been overlooked.
”Prescribing beauty through a pastiche prism does not enable more homes, nor does championing placemaking while protecting the greenbelt. The only way we achieve this is through land use policy, that acknowledges homes need infrastructure such as roads, shops, railways lines, schools, services, and jobs, to name a few. A blanket greenbelt protection continues the choice of ‘land use for homes or infrastructure’, which inevitably means one loses out.”
Densification
Gove has committed to ‘densification’ in cities – building more homes on brownfield sites and making it easier to convert lofts and build extensions. In his speech he described this as ‘gentle density’. Wojtulewicz continues: “This issue is echoed in regeneration policies and gentle density in major cities, as land required for non-housing needs will be used for houses, and in the case of gentle density, too few of them. Consequently, non-housing needs will be delivered outside of communities or not at all.
”Mr Gove must recognise this when championing the London and Manchester density model, yet he avoided mentioning that both chose to use greenbelt to implement placemaking successfully.
“His Cambridge model will be the first test of his placemaking vision as Conservative MP’s and local councils are already opposing his spatial planning and science superpower ambition, which has already been watered down through significant changes to the governments approach to the Ox Cam Arc.
Homes needed in all communities not just cities, says FMB
Brian Berry, chief executive of the FMB also has a view. He says: “The government’s 10 point for housing is a much-needed boost to help build more homes but new homes are needed in every village, town, and city and not just selected urban areas. Gove’s plans are very city-centric.
Berry adds: “A plan for more housing is very welcome and hopefully it will go some way to get housing numbers back on track. It’s positive to see a focus on brownfield sites which are the mainstay of SME house builders, yet the planning system also needs to be fixed to ensure that these developments become a reality. Too many SME house builders are stuck in planning purgatory which stops the delivery of housing and employment opportunities in their communities.”
Election forecast
Richard Beresford concludes: “Although it is fantastic to see housing and planning back in discussion, it is election season. Until we know who the next government is and what other parties might be proposing, we should not expect to see an end to the housing crisis. What we can be certain about is that small and medium-sized housebuilders will have to wait a few more years to see what a fixed planning system looks like for them, and for many, this will likely be too late.”
Picture: Michael Gove, Secretary for State at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities.
Article written by Cathryn Ellis
02nd August 2023