We are all aware of the sustained rise in house prices in recent years, a classic supply and demand curve fuelled by a growing population and shrinking household size. The Government’s response has been a pledge to increase house-building from the current rate of 155,000 dwellings a year to 200,000 over the next decade. The bulk of extra house-building is set to take place in the South East, where 720,000 new homes are planned over the next two decades, with another 478,000 in the East of England. Over half a million homes are proposed for greenfield sites, which would consume 44 square miles of countryside – larger than the size of Manchester. Meanwhile, homes in the North are being bulldozed under the Pathfinder programme in the name of regeneration.
Critics of the Government’s housing policy say that foisting new growth upon the already over-crowded South East will create more traffic and pollution, while exacerbating economic imbalances between the North and South of the country. Arguments for creating more homes in the North of the country are not simply a case of NIMBY-ism. Some areas of the North stand to gain from well-planned house-building that adds value to urban areas in need of regeneration and uses previously developed, or brownfield, land.
More building in the South East will exact a heavy toll on the landscape. Across the UK, an area of countryside the size of Southampton is already lost to new housing every two years, and relatively little brownfield land remains in the South East for redevelopment. This means that much new house-building will take place on green belt land. Poorly designed new housing developments also pose practical and quality of life issues for future residents. The Environment Agency estimates it will cost up to £7,000 per property to protect some parts of the South East from flood damage, while a lack of local job creation can lead to soulless commuter zones that nobody wishes to live in.
The Manuka Club is working with campaign groups who oppose poorly thought out development plans for the ‘big four’ growth areas of the Thames Gateway, the London-Stansted-Cambridge corridor, Ashford, and Milton Keynes-South Midlands. Campaign groups advocate more sustainable solutions to the shortage of housing supply. These include better use of previously brownfield land for new homes, better land-use planning policies that integrate communities and reduce the need to travel, and increased housing densities to make more efficient use of space.
