"Any purposeful planning reform never seems to get past the starting line"
For all of its promises and declarations on new housing, any purposeful planning reform never seems to get past the starting line and its pipedream of 300,000 new homes a year looks increasingly futile.
The Spring Budget is another example; containing just enough policy to try and appease his critics, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced the latest move on housing would be to tackle the ‘nutrient neutrality’ issue in a bid to free-up a backlog of up to 120,000 new homes. Last year, Natural England blocked housing developments in 74 of England’s 333 Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) over fears the sewage, wastewater and run-off from construction sites would contribute to river pollution.
The Home Builders Federation (HBF) has dubbed the move as ‘disproportionate’, claiming it fails to account for the increased water-efficiency of modern new builds compared with older housing stock.
It also cites agricultural run-off and the failure of water companies to upgrade infrastructure as the root causes of the nutrients issue, claiming overall housing stock contributes less than 5% to the problem.
Nevertheless, since last March, developments in and around designated protected areas have needed to show ‘nutrient neutrality’ meaning the nutrient load created through additional wastewater from the development is mitigated.
Hunt used the Budget to announce that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) will open a call for evidence for locally led ‘nutrient neutrality’ credit schemes. Where high quality proposals are identified, the Government will provide funding for housing developers to deliver ‘nutrient neutral’ sites.
Cynics might say the move is more of a token measure and merely touches the surface of helping solve the UK’s housing crisis. Think tank, Centre for Cities, recently laid bare the problem, claiming Britain has a backlog of 4.3 million homes. This housing deficit, it says, would take at least half a century to fill even if the Government’s current target to build 300,000 homes a year is reached. Tackling the problem sooner it says would require 442,000 homes per year over the next 25 years or 654,000 per year over the next decade in England alone. Not surprisingly, it recommends substantial planning reform to tackle the issue - such as replacing the current discretionary planning system with a new rules-based, flexible zoning system, as well as an increase in private sector house building. Recognising the problem however is far easier than solving it. Not because the Government doesn’t have the means to address it but because of its ‘not in my backyard’ mentality
Just last December we saw what happened when the Government tried to make changes to the National Planning Policy Framework which would have seen its yearly house building targets become mandatory.
When faced with a rebellion from backbench Conservative MPs, the Secretary of State for DLUHC, Michael Gove, performed what many interpreted as a u-turn on its manifesto pledge to build 300,000 new homes a year, by making the target advisory, rather than mandatory. Since then, it has been reported a number of local authorities have already scaled back or stalled new developments.
Herein lies the problem; we have politicians - and constituents - who live in leafy green village areas on the edge of greenbelt land and the last thing they want is a brand spanking new housing development popping up alongside it.
Alongside this, we have land banking whereby developers buy land, often with no intention to build on it, sit on it and sell it on for a profit - sometimes passing hands several times before the first brick is laid. Likewise, supply and demand is key for developers - while they need and want to build properties, a housing shortage helps keep prices high - which equates to bigger profit.
In its simplistic form - two of the main authoritative powers that can actually help solve the housing crisis are in part, aiding it. The Government is in many ways its own worst enemy when it comes to solving the crisis - the solution is evident but until attitudes change, the empty promises on housing will continue.
