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Posted on

12 Oct 2016

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Accountability, Affordable and Social Housing, Democracy, Developers/ Development, Inequality, Planning System, Rural communities, Transparency

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How to kill a town

This is about Totnes, but could be any town, anywhere:

“There are three easy ways to destroy a town.

First – relax the planning laws so that developers can build what they want, where they want.

Two – build huge amounts of houses all at once, all over the fields surrounding the town; infill any green space inside; make sure the houses obscure everyone else; make sure they are all unaffordable to local people, but attractive to second home owners and buy to let investors; make sure you don’t provide any new infrastructure, no new schools, hospital places, improvements to roads, to sewers; make sure that local industries; the marina, the last dairy farm are closed down and covered in new, ugly boxes with no gardens and in regimented rows.

[Three] You’re nearly there now! Make sure that the roads are so congested with new cars that traffic can’t move and then for your final flourish, sell off its most treasured, vital area, in the case of Totnes, the market and the garden and the central car parks without which a town such as Totnes cannot function.

Wonderful, you’re there. You have successfully choked an ancient and very special place to death; you look at the million pound houses replacing the marina and it looks good; you look at the tacky tacky boxes spreading out over the hillside along the river and you smile to yourself, who needs farmers, they’re mucky – we can buy all we need from the huge industrial intensive farming block in Hampshire. Who needs a market?

The Black Prince may well have given this ancient town a charter, but that was such a long time ago, who needs history? Who needs tourism, there must be other jobs these people can do, well it doesn’t really matter, once we’ve got the locals out and replaced them almost entirely with second home owners, then we won’t be bothered with their complaints – black windows all winter are a bonus.

Look at Salcombe, 70% second homes and no trouble at all. All those ridiculous transition people with their big ideas and their trying to live responsibly, there’s no money to be made in that, what’s the matter with them.

No, lets make sure we do to Totnes what we have done so successfully in the past to Torbay and towns like Newton Abbot, there’s nothing quite so satisfying as ripping the heart out of a marvellous old place and replacing that heart with concrete…”

https://allengeorgina.wordpress.com/2016/10/12/how-to-kill-a-town-a-how-to-guide/

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East Devon Watch

Posted on

11 Oct 2016

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Affordable and Social Housing, Developers/ Development, Devolution, East Devon Growth Point, Greater Exeter, Housing (local), Infrastructure, Land Supply, Local Enterprise Partnership, Local Plan, Transparency

“Greater Exeter” and its impact on housing and infrastructure in East Devon

We learned recently that the current Stagecoach depot opposite the bus station in Exeter is going to be turned into a massive block of student housing – 557 units.

Now we hear that there are plans for the site of the Honiton Inn, on the roundabout opposite the bus station to be another student block of 101 flats with their own private gym and cinema – opposite a public gym and cinema!

http://m.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/plans-in-for-huge-exeter-city-centre-student-block-on-honiton-inn-site/story-29794670-detail/story.html

What effect will this have on East Devon?

Well, “Greater Exeter” – whose “Visioning Board” like all such development and regeneration boards in “Greater Exeter” meets in secret – is making arrangements to do the next revision to its 3 Local Plans (Exeter, East Devon and Teignbridge) together.

It will be totally evident (in fact it is already) that Exeter’s main growth in housing will remain student housing. So, where will housing for other people go? Obviously East Devon and Teignbridge.

Cranbrook has natural boundaries beyond which it will soon make its further expansion much more difficult than heretofore. Therefore, it will be towns such as Exmouth, Honiton and Sidmouth – and the green fields in-between – that must be expanded to take in the commuters into Exeter, with a possible massive impact.

None of this is being put before the general public in any of the three areas nor is adequate infrastructure being planned for this big change (or at least we cannot be allowed know of any). And, of course, our Local Enterprise Partnership will “own” the business rates of the Exeter “Growth Area” and will have its fingers in the many development pies.

Time to start talking about the NEXT revision of the Local Plan which may well see even more massive development in East Devon on a much bigger scale than we could ever have imagined and could dwarf the extra numbers already agreed..

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

10 Oct 2016

Posted under

Affordable and Social Housing, Developers/ Development, Planning System

Chartered Institute of Housebuilding tells government to build more affordable rent homes

“…The professional body for the sector made the comments as the chancellor Philip Hammond prepares to make his first major spending announcements in the Autumn Statement on 23 November.

At the Conservative Party conference last week, the chancellor and local government secretary Sajid Javid unveiled a £3bn housebuilding fund, and outlined plans to directly commission the construction of homes on publicly owned land. The aim is to build 25,000 new homes before 2020.

The CIH welcomed the announcements and recommended a range of further initiatives in its submission to ministers.

It called on the government to focus on substantially increasing the number of affordable rented homes in the UK. It also recommended increasing funding for regeneration, improving standards in the private rented sector, and renewing the fight against homelessness.

Gavin Smart, deputy chief executive of CIH, said: “We welcome the level of focus on housing by the government recently; in particular the acknowledgement that enhancing affordability will be central to solving our housing crisis.

“We believe that the Autumn Statement is the opportunity to turn this commitment into action and build a substantial amount of new properties at affordable rents. This is the only way we can really begin to tackle our housing crisis and make sure people of all incomes have access to a home they can afford.”

Among its other recommendations, CIH urged the government to follow through on pledges to introduce greater flexibility for affordable homes funding.

It also advised the government to allow councils to borrow more for housebuilding through “reshaping and extending” the housing revenue account borrowing provisions. Currently, councils are limited in how much they can borrow under a cap introduced when councils were made self-financing for housing debt in 2012.

The CIH also said local authorities should be exempt for the remaining stages of the scheme to cut social housing rents in exchange for extra investment in rented homes.”

http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2016/10/autumn-statement-must-deliver-government-housing-promises-says-cih

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East Devon Watch

Posted on

10 Oct 2016

Posted under

Accountability, Affordable and Social Housing, Developers/ Development, Rural communities

Towns being pressurised to take the strain from rural areas?

Two articles below from the Rural Services network are essentially telling the same story: it’s too expensive to fund rural communities (particularly health and social care for older people) so let’s increase densities in towns and persuade people to live there instead.

What seems to be the message is “build it and they will come” – but who will come and why?

If you have no primary school, no doctor, no bus service in your rural village are you expected to up sticks and move to a town or city where housing density increases and these services are supposedly more easily accessed and where transport is supposedly better?

Very little of the new housing in towns and cities is affordable or built for low-income families or pensioners. Infrastructure is not being built to service the new houses (roads in Cranbrook are still unadopted) and doctors are stretched to their limit with current patients.

Community hospitals are likely to be closed in half of our towns, so, in a deepest rural area you will actually probably be closer to a community hospital than if you live in a town – if you have a car. Maternity services will be non-existent for rural parents.

What would persuade rural dwellers to move to towns where facilities are just as bad as in their villages? People who CHOSE a village carefully in the first place?

And how would those villages survive if they COULD and did move? Only the rich will soon be able to afford rural living (where no access to a “transport hub” or a school or a doctor will not worry them) and ordinary rural families and older people on average incomes will be forced into inadequate town and city properties whether they like it or not.

And why, if this IS the way of the world, is there still so much pressure to build more and more houses in these small villages?

Is this really the answer to our problems?

Cranbrook or Uplyme? Honiton or West Hill?

Soon you may have no choice.

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

10 Oct 2016

Posted under

Affordable and Social Housing, NHS (local), Rural communities

Challenges faced by rural communities

The Rural Services Network has urged the government to use its forthcoming Autumn Statement to address challenges faced by rural communities.

The network has called on Chancellor Philip Hammond to include two targeted measures in the Autumn Statement, due next month.

One measure seeks to boost economic growth and productivity in rural areas. The other seeks to improve care for older rural people.

The first policy proposal calls for investment in rural infrastructure in order to support rural growth and employment.

The network proposes that this measure focuses on improvements to rural broadband connectivity, rural public transport and better provision of affordable rural housing.
“It is important that rural economies can be productive and can grow, both for the wellbeing of rural areas themselves and as contributors to the national economy,” says the proposal.

“However, rural areas have some relative weaknesses.”
Rural weaknesses include productivity levels that are below the national average, low wages and below average capital investment by businesses, says the network.

The second policy proposal is for improvements in adult social services provision in rural areas.

The proposal calls for revenue grant funding investment to end further reductions in adult social services provision and to take account of the ageing population.

Rural areas are home to a disproportionate number of older people within their populations, which places a significant extra burden on adult social services.

“Adult social services are already over-stretched as a result of reducing local authority budgets,” says the network’s proposal.

“Many social services department have tightened up their criteria for helping residents and now focus only on high priority cases.

The network says one outcome is that many older people are not discharged from hospital as quickly as they otherwise could be, which is an additional cost for the NHS.

“Growing demand for adult social services risks taking the situation to breaking point.

“It is acknowledged that upper tier local authorities are being allowed to raise their portion of Council Tax income by an extra 2% to help address this concern.

“This, however, does not keep pace with rising costs faced by the sector, including those from National Minimum Wage and National Insurance increases.”

The network wants funding for adult social services protected, as it is for the NHS.

Central government could achieve this with a specific extra grant to upper tier local authorities, says the proposal.
Despite attempts to protect frontline services, in the 2014/15 financial year the relevant authorities were planning budget reductions of £420m for adult social services.

A slightly larger sum would be needed to account for the growing number of older people.

Nationally, some £1bn would be needed to stop further service reductions or pressures in just one financial year, says the network.

More appropriate levels of formal care for older rural people would reduce pressure on and save costs in the NHS, it says.

These benefits would not only accrue to rural areas, but they would be particularly valuable there given their population profiles, it adds.

http://www.rsnonline.org.uk/services/network-urges-chancellor-to-address-rural-challenges

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East Devon Watch

Posted on

10 Oct 2016

Posted under

Affordable and Social Housing, Development Management Committee, Regeneration, Rural communities

More attractive towns and cities can ease pressure on countryside”

“MORE attractive towns and cities would ease development pressure on the countryside, say rural campaigners.

Housing should be developed alongside transport infrastructure for economic, social and environmental benefits, says the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).

The charity argues that high-density development near to high-quality public transport services could boost businesses and jobs.

It also calls for more well-designed homes and more diverse, exciting communities, arguing that they would reduce pressure on the Green Belt and the wider countryside.

The recommendations are made in CPRE’s ‘Making the Link’ paper which, it says, builds on emerging government thinking.

CPRE policy adviser Trinley Walker said: “To build the homes we need and make our towns attractive for residents and businesses, housing development and transport must go hand in hand.

“Good access to public transport should be an important factor when councils make decisions about where to build houses – yet it often gets side-lined.

“This means that in many towns the potential for regeneration, quality housing and better connected communities is missed.”

The paper highlights the government’s recent NPPF consultation identified 680 commuter hubs suitable for high density development.

It argues that attention can also be given to smaller places like market towns, which delivering connectivity, services, employment and business opportunities for rural communities.
Situating high-density housing near transport hubs can concentrate development on brownfield sites in need of regeneration and increase connectivity to employment centres, says the paper.

This has the potential to make towns more attractive for residents and business, halt damaging urban sprawl and reduce car use and road congestion, it argues.

The paper suggests a number of options to encourage such development.

These include reduced business rates for local businesses and the roll-out of planning tools to help identify suitable locations for development.

The paper calls for higher-density development based around public transport hubs, planned around local services and waking and cycling.

High density development needn’t mean tower blocks in market towns, it says.

Terraced housing and mansion blocks can provide high density homes and preserve the unique character of towns, the paper argues.

‘Making the Link’ is the sixth paper in CPRE’s Housing Foresight series, which aims to provide innovative policy solutions to critical housing issues.”

http://www.rsnonline.org.uk/environment/cities-can-ease-pressure-on-countryside

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East Devon Watch

Posted on

3 Oct 2016

Posted under

Affordable and Social Housing, Developers/ Development

Developer meeting … somewhere in deep, dark Devon

£3 billion or £5 billion to be made available to build 25,000 houses by 2020:

“OK Hammond is giving us £3 billion to build 25,000 homes by 2020 – that’s £120,000 per unit, right? So, you know that site we’ve had our eye on in the Home Counties, that we were going to put the £350,000 houses on – let’s just go right ahead and charge £475,000 and claim the subsidy. Right. That’s a £120,000 extra profit for each house. Phil – that looks like a nice little earner for us, can you get Damien to buy them all with those Panama shell companies he set up for us? Sweet!”

Hammond wants to “emphasise” brownfield sites:

“Phil I found a rotten brownfield site – it’s absolute rubbish – literally, built on an old landfill site the council is offering us for £1 – I know, I know – old Bill came up trumps, well worth that deal we did for his daughter. What do you think about slapping up a few ticky-tackies at about £50,000 a pop, claiming the brownfield subsidy of £120,000 each and flogging ’em off fast at a bargain price of, oh, let’s say £250,000? In, out, bosh, bosh, a donation to the party and bob’s my knighthood. Get on to it Phil – and keep a couple back, I hear Bill has a couple of other kids he needs to set up”.

Hammond has also suggested developing derelict shopping centres for housing:

“Now, about Middletown Shopping Centre. Yes, I KNOW it’s fully let, yes I KNOW it’s popular, yes, I KNOW there’s a waiting list for vacancies, yes, I KNOW it’s been a nice little earner for us over the years. But that new Hammond idea is the way to go. So, Damien – cut down the maintenance to bare bones, bung up the bogs and start telling the papers about the terrible drug problems there. Yes, I KNOW there isn’t a drug problem – it’s your job to make sure there is, Damien. … Now how many units can we cram in there with a £120,000 each subsidy. Yes, I KNOW they will have to go 5 miles to shop, but that isn’t my problem. (Starts to sing): “We’re in the money, we’re in the money…”

Posted by

East Devon Watch

Posted on

2 Oct 2016

Posted under

Affordable and Social Housing, Developers/ Development, Inequality

“Tory housing minister says building more council homes will increase inequality”

“Jeremy Corbyn’s pledge to dramatically increase the construction of council homes will actually increase inequality, the Conservative housing minister today claimed.

Gavin Barwell told the party’s conference that the Labour plan to build at least 500,000 council homes as part of an increase overall housebuilding to a million would increase inequality between people who owned homes and those that did not.

He told a fringe event at the Birmingham gathering on Sunday afternoon that far from solving the housing crisis, the plan and would widen “the divide in society”.

“If we carry on building at the current rate then by 2020 the average house in the south east of England will increase by about £1000 a week. That will mean normal people’s homes in Kent or Hampshire, or wherever, are going to be earning more than they’re earning,” Mr Barwell said.

“Think about the consequences of that in terms of the equality in society between people that are lucky enough to have or inherit a property – and those that don’t have property.

“That was what I think was so remarkable about what Jeremy Corbyn envisaged last week – because he envisaged a future where half of us live in council homes.

“If you’re going to build at the current rate – which is what he’s talking about – and half the people are going to go in council homes and half of them are going to own, the divide in society is only going to get wider and wider. I would have thought he cares about that.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-council-housing-housebuilding-gavin-barwell-conference-live-2016-a7341946.html

However, the new Minister is a NIMBY in his own constituency:

“The new Housing Minister that Theresa May tasked to increase home-building has been accused of taking a “not in my back yard” approach, after it emerged he fought against the construction of hundreds of properties in his own constituency.

Gavin Barwell was appointed by Theresa May last month as the incoming Prime Minister pledged to “get more houses built” and solve the housing crisis plaguing parts of Britain.

But plans opposed by Mr Barwell in his own constituency of Croydon Central, despite a huge housing shortage there, would have potentially provided homes for more than 500 families in the area. …”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-council-housing-housebuilding-gavin-barwell-conference-live-2016-a7341946.html

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