EIGHTH REPORT
The ODPM: Housing, Planning, Local Government
and the Regions Committee
has agreed to the following Report:
PLANNING FOR SUSTAINABLE HOUSING AND COMMUNITIES:
SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES IN THE SOUTH EAST
SUMMARY
Not enough homes are being built in the South East to meet the demands from the increasing number of households in the region and its growing economy. The house-building targets set in 2001 are not being achieved and house prices have risen beyond the reach of many households. In response, the Government's Communities Plan seeks to accelerate the current house-building programme and increase the house-building target by about 200,000 on top of the 900,000 new homes planned between 1996 and 2016 in the South East. The Government intends that the homes should be built as part of sustainable communities.
Building more homes is not a panacea and the impact of such a housing programme on the environment could be unsustainable. The impact of developing so many homes in the South East, one of the most densely populated regions in Europe has not been fully assessed. The Government has identified four Growth Areas where the additional 200,000 homes are to be concentrated. They are Ashford, Milton Keynes, Thames Gateway and the London Stansted Cambridge corridor which are shown on the map at the end of the summary. The additional homes could place excessive demands on the environment leading to the loss of greenfield sites and excessive pressure on the water supply and other natural resources.
It will be an expensive and complex task to build so many homes. The Government has recognised this, but has yet to estimate the costs of providing the transport links, health care, education and all the other facilities which new neighbourhoods require. The costs will probably not be much less than £20 billion in the four Growth Areas. It must be questionable whether the benefits justify such a huge outlay. Local authorities need to be confident that the infrastructure will be available when the housing is occupied. The Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott told us that the Communities Plan "was not a wholesale plan for transport infrastructure, education and health." An implementation framework is required for each area drawn up jointly by several Government departments and the local authorities to ensure budgets are identified and the infrastructure provided when the new housing is occupied. About £610m is allocated in the Communities Plan over the next three years. A lot more will be required in the longer term.
The complexity of providing water supplies for the increased number of households in one of the most arid regions in England could place a constraint on new development. It will take more than ten years for the water companies to put in place new local water sources which will need to be reflected in the time table for any house-building programme.
The Government's objective to bring down house prices is unlikely to be achieved. There is ample evidence that even the enlarged house-building programme in the South East will have little impact on house prices. This underlines the importance of the new developments including significant amounts of affordable housing. Another approach is to distribute housing demand more evenly across a wider area including the parts of the Midlands and the North which are currently suffering from low housing demand. Our inquiry into regional disparities is considering further strategies to achieve a more even distribution of economic activity and housing demand.
The house-building programme in the South East will not be sustainable if it comprises exclusively housing development. It must help regenerate parts of the Growth Areas which include deprived communities in need of new jobs, social facilities as well as housing renewal. With the increased pressure to achieve the house-building targets, the easy option may be taken. Building homes on the green belt or greenfield sites around Milton Keynes, Cambridge or Ashford will contribute more to meeting the Government's house-building targets but add to the urban sprawl. Building housing and other uses on brownfield sites in towns such as Corby, Southend or Harlow pose complex challenges but will help to regenerate those centres.
The importance of promoting employment might get overlooked in the rush to build a large number of homes. London is the major employment centre for many of the Growth Areas and the current unsustainable commuting patterns will continue unless jobs are created locally and people discouraged from commuting long distances.
The Government's house-building programme presents opportunities to develop good practice in building high-density neighbourhoods that are mixed tenure with environmentally efficient homes. Masterplans should provide the basis for the layout of the new neighbourhoods. Prescriptive guidance on road layouts limits the potential of architects, urban designers and civil engineers to emulate the success of the Victorian neighbourhoods.
The last major house-building programme was in the New Towns between about 1950 and 1970; many are now in need of comprehensive redevelopment after 40 years. Our predecessor Committee's report on the New Towns highlighted the poor layout of their centres, the low density housing development and the failure to secure mixed use.[1] It is important that the lessons of this experience are learned and the new neighbourhoods are planned in a way which will satisfy demands in the very long term.
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Growth Areas in the South East
INTRODUCTION
1. There is huge demand for housing in the South East with
the burgeoning regional economy and the growing number of households.
The supply of new homes has not kept up with these demands; prices
have escalated and the need for affordable housing increased.
In July 2002, the Government announced proposals to increase house-building
in the South East. In February 2003, as part of its Communities
Plan, it revealed further details about funding and announced
the creation of new agencies to promote housing development. Here
we consider the potential impact of such a big house-building
programme and, in particular whether sustainable communities will
be created. This Committee and its predecessor committee have
held two inquiries and published a report into affordable housing
in January 2003. The two reports inevitably overlap.
2. During our inquiry we held five evidence sessions, and made
a visit to the Greenwich Millennium Village and Dartford. We received
66 written submissions which we commend to the Office of the Deputy
Prime Minister and others. We are very grateful to our advisors
Professor Kelvin MacDonald, Martin Crookston and Alan Wenban-Smith;
to English Partnerships and Dartford Borough Council for their
hospitality and to all who provided written and oral evidence
to the Committee.
3. The terms of reference, which we announced in September 2002,
were to consider:
- The overall scale of housebuilding required in the South East,
- whether the proposals are likely to significantly reduce house
prices
- The geographical distribution of new housing, including plans
to concentrate development in the South East in four growth areas:
Milton Keynes, the Cambridge/Stansted Corridor, Ashford and the
Thames Gateway
- Whether the proposals will promote high quality sustainable
communities whilst avoiding poorly designed urban sprawl
- Proposals for new Millennium Villages
- The balance of new development between housing for sale and
social housing
- The extent to which decisions relating to housing, including
numbers, tenure and density, should be taken by central and local
government.
4. In this report we use the Government's own definition of a
sustainable community set out in the Communities Plan. The key
requirements are:
- a flourishing local economy;
- strong leadership that responds positively to change;
- effective participation by local people, groups and businesses
especially in the planning and long term stewardship of their
community;
- a safe and healthy local environment with well designed public
space,
- sufficient size, scale and density and the right layout to support
basic amenities in the neighbourhood,
- good public transport
- a well-integrated mix of decent homes of different types and
tenures
- good quality local public services
- a diverse public, vibrant and creative culture
- a sense of place[2]
2 1 Sustainable communities: building for the future.
ODPM February 2003. p5 Back
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