Western Morning News (Saturday)
Rural West at risk in building boom
COUNTRYSIDE groups in Devon and Cornwall are demanding changes to the Government’s proposed shake-up of planning laws, warning it will lead to the concreting over of large parts of the region’s rural acres.
The CPRE countryside charity branches in both counties are joining forces to protest at the shake-up, which is part of the Prime Minister’s plan to re-build Britain after coronavirus and solve the housing crisis.
Cornwall CPRE chair Richard Stubbs has already warned a one-size-fits all policy leaves the county open to a developers’ free-for-all.
Now research from neighbouring Devon CPRE shows that the algorithm devised by ministers to replace local input into setting levels of housing need will see a 60% increase in the number of properties built in the Devon countryside. Some of the most beautiful landscapes, in the South Hams, Teignbridge, North Devon, Mid-Devon and East Devon would be hardest it, the CPRE’s director in Devon Penny Mills warns.
She said: “To deliver the type of homes we need at the pace we need them, the government should abandon centralised housing targets and ensure planning remains locally led, with local authorities and communities empowered to have a say in what gets built where.”
Conservative MPs, including former Prime Minister Theresa May and her former deputy, Damian Green – both now on the back benches – have also warned against the policy change.
Mrs May told a House of Commons debate it would fail to deliver the homes needed.
THE Westcountry stands to lose hundreds of acres of countryside under concrete if proposed Government changes to the way housing need is calculated go ahead, a rural pressure group warns today.
The CPRE in Devon says the controversial new housing algorithm, devised by Ministers as part of efforts to boost national growth after coronavirus and solve the housing crisis, will “gobble up more countryside without delivering badly needed affordable homes.”
New analysis from the countryside charity claims to show the Government’s sweeping changes to local planning could lead to the worst of all possible worlds – the loss of more precious countryside without delivering the affordable homes rural communities are crying out for across Devon and the wider South West.
The warning from Devon CPRE comes during the public consultation period for the Government’s White Paper ‘Planning for the Future’ – the biggest overhaul of the planning system in over 70 years. Consultation ends on October 29. Central to this will be changes to the 2014 formula currently used to determine local housing need.
The proposals have already come under fierce attack from Conservative MPs in rural constituencies. Led by former Prime Minister Theresa May, they warned the plan would fail to get the right houses built in the right places.
“The Government needs to think again and come back with a comprehensive proposal to this House for a proper debate and, dare I say it, a meaningful vote,” Mrs May said.
And Conservative Bob Seely, MP for the Isle of Wight, warned the change in policy would damage urban, suburban and rural Britain.
“The worst of all worlds would be to hollow out our cities, to urbanise our suburbs and suburbanise the countryside and yet I fear that is what we may accidentally be achieving,” he told Housing Minister Chris Pincher in a Commons debate.
In the South West demographic analysis of figures released by CPRE show that Devon as a whole would see what it calls “startling 60% increase in the number of new homes.”
This, the charity says, is well above the 38% increase for the South West region as a whole.
And some of Devon’s greenest areas would bear the brunt of the explosion in housing numbers with the South Hams seeing the biggest increase anywhere in the county (117%), closely followed by Teignbridge (102%), North Devon (93%), Mid Devon (75%) and East Devon (74%).
Urban areas of the county would see significant but smaller increases – Plymouth (28%), Exeter (11%) and Torbay (8%). Only two rural districts would see a small decrease, West Devon which includes a large area of Dartmoor National Park (-13%) and Torridge (-1%).
Under the new housing algorithm, areas with the sharpest house price rises since the 2009 recession would get the highest number of new homes. Devon CPRE believes this would only deliver bigger profits for developers at the expense of building homes in areas where people can afford to live.
Penny Mills, Director of Devon CPRE, said: “Here in Devon we need to deliver more sustainable, well designed and genuinely affordable homes in the right places, including in rural areas. But our analysis has shown the government’s far-reaching changes to local planning could lead to the worst of all worlds – gobbling up our countryside without doing anything to tackle the affordable homes crisis.
“To deliver the type of homes we need at the pace we need them, the government should abandon centralised housing targets and ensure planning remains locally led, with local authorities and communities empowered to have a say in what gets built where.
“What we need is careful, sensible reform to create a planning system that delivers genuinely affordable homes, protects locally valued green space and countryside, while boosting trust and participation in the planning system of the future.’
“The shift from urban to rural would undoubtedly put a higher number of green field sites under even greater pressure.”
“With a new zonal planning system potentially giving outline permission for all suitable development sites across huge areas of land, and little or no local discretion intended as to the order in which these sites should be built, it would be almost impossible to prevent developers from cherry-picking green field sites while leaving urban brownfield land unused.”
‘ The shift from urban to rural will put green fields under pressure’ PENNY MILLS, CPRE DEVON