Building blitz in Lake District and Cotswolds

HOuSEBuILDING will more than double in the Cotswolds and Lake District under the Government’s planning reforms, it emerged yesterday.

Analysis by countryside charity CPRE warned the changes could lead to the ‘worst of all possible worlds’ with swathes of countryside being ‘gobbled up’.

And although there will be vast building projects in rural areas, cities other than London will escape the housing boom, the charity said.

In August, ministers published details of an algorithm that calculates where homes will be built. It is being considered as the Government pushes ahead with its annual target of building 300,000 new homes.

It produces targets for every area in England, based on its ‘relative affordability’ and the extent of local development.

But under the approach, areas with the sharpest house price rises since the 2009 recession would get the highest number of new homes. And CPRE said this would deliver bigger profits for developers at the expense of building homes in areas where people cannot afford to live.

The charity warned the algorithm ‘will threaten valued countryside and do little to tackle the affordable housing crisis’.

In Cumbria, home to the Lake District, housebuilding will increase by 178 per cent, according to the CPRE. The Cotswolds will face 148 per cent more development and the rural Richmondshire district in Yorkshire would see a ten-fold increase.

But there will be a significant decrease in new homes being built in urban areas. For example Greater Manchester would see a decrease of 37 per cent and Birmingham would see a fall of 15 per cent.

Crispin Truman, chief executive of the charity, said: ‘We are in the midst of a housing crisis and need to deliver many more well-designed, genuinely affordable homes in the right places, including in rural areas.

‘But our analysis has shown the Government’s far reaching and untested changes to local planning could lead to the worst of all possible worlds – gobbling up our countryside without delivering the affordable homes our rural communities are crying out for.’

He called on the Government to abandon its centralised housing targets to ensure that planning remains locally-led.

‘It’s clear that governing by algorithm doesn’t work but the problems with the Government’s planning proposals don’t end there,’ he added. He said there needed to be a ‘major rethink’ and sensible reform to prevent construction of poorly located new homes in the countryside.

The charity said: ‘It’s clear the new algorithm could deepen the housing crisis delivering more unaffordable homes in areas based on higher housing prices and not genuine need.’