9:20am Saturday 31st July 2010
By Andy Tate
THE Government’s decision to scrap regional strategies will have a negative impact on housing projects in the south-west, according to a leading property expert.
The secretary of state for communities and local government, Eric Pickles, has announced the abolition of Regional Spatial Strategies, under which local authorities, including Swindon Borough Council, are committed to house building targets.
But Ned Cussen, development head at the Bristol office of property consultants King Sturge, has predicted the move will prevent the development of private and affordable housing in an area in which it is badly needed. And he has warned that the resulting waiting lists will push up house prices in years to come.
“The revocation of regional plans and their spatial development targets by Eric Pickles is a bold but possibly foolhardy move,” said Mr Cussen.
“This approach will do nothing but bring greater uncertainty to the planning system and the delivery of much needed private and affordable housing.
“Without regional and spatial targets for new housing, local councils will look to set their own local housing delivery targets but there is the risk that this may happen in an uncoordinated and haphazard way. How this will ensure council’s responsibly and equitably accommodate new housing is currently unclear.
“We cannot see how this will assist in delivering a coordinated allocation of other community services such as health, education and policing that are linked to housing and population numbers.
“This situation is unfair on many authorities. It could lead, in many cases, to inertia and policy vacuum among local councils regarding working with developers and housing associations on housing delivery. It will also fail to assist in required cost savings for other linked public services and has severe consequences about how planning appeals are judged.
“There is also the fear that it will lead to lengthening waiting lists for public housing, reduced levels of new housing delivery, limited new housing supply going forward and a consequential upward pressure on house prices as demand eventually returns outstripping supply.
“Markets, be they for social or private housing, need certainty and we do not have this at the moment.”
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