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Battle lines over house-building Battle lines over house-building
(6 months later)
I welcome the initiatives announced in the budget to free up mortgage availability, as, despite the relative success of NewBuy and FirstBuy, a large section of society has effectively been excluded from home ownership for nearly five years now (Housebuilding sets David Cameron and George Osborne against 'nimby' Tories, 23 March). But fixing the financing alone will not solve all the problems which have blighted the industry, as we also need to ensure there is sufficient supply. Even in the boom years we have never managed to reach the 240,000 new homes a year target set by the government as the minimum requirement to cater for our growing population. Currently we're pitifully scraping along at nearly half that figure. That failure lies squarely with the planning system, which continues to thwart new development at almost every opportunity. If the government fails to grasp the planning nettle, no amount of mortgage financing will get Britain building again.
Bob Weston
Chairman and managing director, Weston Homes Plc		I welcome the initiatives announced in the budget to free up mortgage availability, as, despite the relative success of NewBuy and FirstBuy, a large section of society has effectively been excluded from home ownership for nearly five years now (Housebuilding sets David Cameron and George Osborne against 'nimby' Tories, 23 March). But fixing the financing alone will not solve all the problems which have blighted the industry, as we also need to ensure there is sufficient supply. Even in the boom years we have never managed to reach the 240,000 new homes a year target set by the government as the minimum requirement to cater for our growing population. Currently we're pitifully scraping along at nearly half that figure. That failure lies squarely with the planning system, which continues to thwart new development at almost every opportunity. If the government fails to grasp the planning nettle, no amount of mortgage financing will get Britain building again.
Bob Weston
Chairman and managing director, Weston Homes Plc
• Any chance you could stop insulting people who campaign to protect their local environment by calling them "nimbys"? The government's big push for sprawl doesn't spring from any desire to address homelessness but from the Treasury's belief that building lots of houses would even out the peaks and troughs in the UK economic cycle. Building lots of the wrong kind of houses in the wrong places won't do this, but it will cause massive environmental damage.
Jon Reeds
Smart Growth UK		• Any chance you could stop insulting people who campaign to protect their local environment by calling them "nimbys"? The government's big push for sprawl doesn't spring from any desire to address homelessness but from the Treasury's belief that building lots of houses would even out the peaks and troughs in the UK economic cycle. Building lots of the wrong kind of houses in the wrong places won't do this, but it will cause massive environmental damage.
Jon Reeds
Smart Growth UK
• It is a slander to call the Conservative councils opposing George Osborne's housing plans nimbys. They should be applauded for defending our countryside. I was a nimby activist in the Say no to Sandleford campaign, which unsuccessfully fought a housing development in west Berkshire.• It is a slander to call the Conservative councils opposing George Osborne's housing plans nimbys. They should be applauded for defending our countryside. I was a nimby activist in the Say no to Sandleford campaign, which unsuccessfully fought a housing development in west Berkshire.
During our battle we learnt a few home truths. In Berkshire an acre of agricultural land sells for £7,000; with planning permission for residential development, it sells at £700,000. The landowner turns a hundred-fold profit. In our case over 100 acres was earmarked for development so the owners banked a £70m profit for persuading a planning inspector to sign on the dotted line. These windfall profits are not available when brownfield sites are built on. The prospect of huge gains allows agricultural landowners to hire expensive consultants who distort the planning process in favour of concreting over greenfield sites. We lost our campaign. Tragically, this abuse of the planning process will be repeated all over England. Wealthy speculators, often armed with hot foreign money, are salivating over the billions to be made from violating our countryside.
David Cooper
Newbury, Berkshire		During our battle we learnt a few home truths. In Berkshire an acre of agricultural land sells for £7,000; with planning permission for residential development, it sells at £700,000. The landowner turns a hundred-fold profit. In our case over 100 acres was earmarked for development so the owners banked a £70m profit for persuading a planning inspector to sign on the dotted line. These windfall profits are not available when brownfield sites are built on. The prospect of huge gains allows agricultural landowners to hire expensive consultants who distort the planning process in favour of concreting over greenfield sites. We lost our campaign. Tragically, this abuse of the planning process will be repeated all over England. Wealthy speculators, often armed with hot foreign money, are salivating over the billions to be made from violating our countryside.
David Cooper
Newbury, Berkshire
• You may wonder what Cairngorms National Park is thinking when it allows housing development on such a large scale that one small town, Kingussie, is approved to double in size; another small town, Aviemore, is to be extended by an adjacent new town of 1,500 houses within sight of the most precious landscape on our island, home of the osprey, the wildcat, the red squirrel and many other protected species of fauna and flora; and two further small villages are also approved for new developments. Affordable housing, but for whom? Employment in the area is mostly restricted to low-paid, temporary, seasonal and part-time work in hotels. The housing is "affordable" only as second homes. – now for more people with the "spare home subsify".
Mary Atkinson
Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group		• You may wonder what Cairngorms National Park is thinking when it allows housing development on such a large scale that one small town, Kingussie, is approved to double in size; another small town, Aviemore, is to be extended by an adjacent new town of 1,500 houses within sight of the most precious landscape on our island, home of the osprey, the wildcat, the red squirrel and many other protected species of fauna and flora; and two further small villages are also approved for new developments. Affordable housing, but for whom? Employment in the area is mostly restricted to low-paid, temporary, seasonal and part-time work in hotels. The housing is "affordable" only as second homes. – now for more people with the "spare home subsify".
Mary Atkinson
Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group
• Coalition policy consists of an unimpeded rush to London and the south-east, where any development must be accommodated in the name of economic growth. What happens to the rest of the country is not explained. How much better to have a serious policy to bridge the north-south divide, to take jobs and investment north to where people need them and where housing is affordable and plentiful.
Judith Martin
Winchester, Hampshire		• Coalition policy consists of an unimpeded rush to London and the south-east, where any development must be accommodated in the name of economic growth. What happens to the rest of the country is not explained. How much better to have a serious policy to bridge the north-south divide, to take jobs and investment north to where people need them and where housing is affordable and plentiful.
Judith Martin
Winchester, Hampshire
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