Rural campaigners prepare for battle
Gordon Browns ambitious building programme of three million new homes by 2020 will face huge opposition among residents and environmental campaigners
The Prime Minister announced yesterday that 250,000 more homes than planned would be built within 12 years as he announced measures to identify surplus land and build five new eco-towns.
While the plans were welcomed by most housing organisations, rural campaigners gave a warning of the impact on the environment, and council chiefs called for a huge investment in infrastructure.
Many regional assemblies are already opposing existing house building programmes in the South East and the East of England, after local consultation that has caused huge delays in getting housing projects under way.
Gordon Brown resents having been a guinea-pig in a pilot project called E-stream that put him on a fast track to university
But The Times has learnt that the Government is expected to announce the abolition of these unelected bodies today as part of a shake-up of regional government that could pave the way for speedier building.
Gordon Brown also came under attack yesterday for failing to disclose how much the plans would cost, where the homes would be and how he would ensure that affordable private housing was delivered quickly.
Next week Yvette Cooper, the Housing Minister, will publish a Green Paper setting out further details of the building programme and a three-year funding settlement for local councils.
Whitehall sources said that there would be mixed private and social housing, which would be constructed in different parts of the country, including the Midlands and the North.
Sources later suggested that 50 per cent of the new housing would be social housing plus up to 25 per cent council housing. In recent years social housing has been built almost exclusively by housing associations for rent or shared equity schemes. But Ms Cooper is expected to announce proposals to allow town halls to borrow from the private sector so they can build more themselves.
There may also be measures to allow property developers to apply for housing grants directly from the Government rather than through housing association tenders.
Mr Brown reassured rural campaigners that there would be no review of existing greenbelt land and that the majority of the new housing would be on previously developed brownfield land. At present 74 per cent of building is on brownfield and 26 per cent on greenfield.
But rural groups suspect that the Government may be forced to change its policy in the medium term if there is not enough available land.
At the moment 185,000 homes a year are built in England, which was due to rise to 200,000 by 2016. Yesterdays announcement will raise that target to 240,000 a year by 2016.
More than 550 government-owned sites are under consideration for 100,000 new homes, while councils are under pressure to identify brownfield space for another 60,000.
A Planning Reform Bill will also be introduced in the next Parliamentary session to speed up major housing projects by streamlining the system.
But Mr Brown appeared to duck the issue of whether there would be a windfall tax on land that has planning permission. He told MPs that he would consider alternative ways of ensuring that landowners who profited from obtaining planning permission gave back to the community.
Roger Humber, strategic policy adviser for the House Builders Association, said: The principal problem is that areas with the greatest shortages, such as the South East, South West and East Midlands, are those where the local authorities do not accept that this scale of increase is necessary and they put up all sorts of environmental and infrastructure objections.
Sir Simon Milton, chairman of the Local Government Association, said: The problem has never been purely land supply, but more the lack of funding for the roads, schools and hospitals that are needed to turn soulless developments into vibrant communities.
Neil Sinden, policy director of the Council for the Protection of Rural England, said: There should be no decision on housing numbers without full consideration of the environmental consequences.
Gideon Amos, chief executive of the Town and Country Planning Association, said: Public bodies and government departments that own land must provide it at a discount to make these housing and environmental gains possible; high-quality, low-carbon communities must be the end result of the initiative.
source: timesonline