No more identikit homes, pledges May
HOUSEBUILDERS must stop forcing communities to put up with “row after row of identikit red-tiled boxes” on the edge of towns and villages, Theresa May says today.
The Prime Minister makes a personal appeal to Daily Telegraph readers to accept the moral case for allowing more new homes to be built in sought-after areas as she unveils an overhaul of planning rules. Mrs May, with Sajid Javid, the Housing Secretary, will announce another overhaul of those planning rules in England to encourage developers to “get more of the right homes built in the right places more quickly”.
New developments will have to include more “traditional streets and squares, and buildings that better suit their surroundings” to win the backing of local people who might adopt a Not In My Back Yard or “Nimby” attitude towards new homes. Other reforms will stop new arrivals in towns and villages “insisting that local farms take action to reduce smells and noise” or force churches to silence bells.
The Government will require all councils to hit targets for new homes – or have the powers to approve new developments taken over by a central government agency.
The Telegraph led a “Hands Off Our Land” campaign six years ago against a plan by the last Conservative government to water down planning rules. In
her comment piece for The Telegraph, Mrs May appeals directly to readers for their support, saying she is “sure Telegraph readers will understand that we need to build more homes” for their families to live in.
She says that “building the homes our children and grandchildren need doesn’t have to mean destroying the open countryside we all treasure”, and that the Green Belt will be protected.
In a speech in central London today, Mrs May will say that she expects “developers to do their duty to Britain and build the homes our country needs”.
As part of her plans to “restore the dream of home ownership” she will warn developers their past record could count against them when they bid with councils for new planning permissions.
She will complain that the directors of construction companies are rewarded for their profits or share price, not for the number of homes they build.
The new rules will allow councils to take a developer’s previous building rate into account when deciding to grant future planning permissions. Mrs May will say: “I want to see planning permissions going to people who are actually going to build houses, not just sit on land and watch its value rise.”
She will say the security of the first home she shared with Philip, her husband, made it easier for her to play an active role in society.
It showed that providing more housing will allow more people to have a stake in their community and its future, she will argue.