*** There are just seven weeks to act! The consultation is open now and closes on Tuesday 24th September (see links at foot) ***
Arundel and South Downs MP Andrew Griffith has criticised the government’s planning rules changes saying it “threatens rural communities by using a mutant algorithm ‘plus’ that will determine a mandatory top-down increase in housebuilding numbers”.
The Housing Statement presented by Angela Rayner on Tuesday (30th July) confirmed that local planning authorities must deliver on mandatory housing numbers. These will be calculated using a method that will include an uncapped multiplier in areas where house prices are ‘out of step’ with local incomes. This will not take into account factors such as retirees and commuters. It will remove the presumption that existing urban areas – such as London - should take more houses despite having more social and physical infrastructure and benefitting from taxpayer subsidised 24/7 transport.
Speaking after the Housing Minister’s announcement today, Andrew Griffith warned of the dire and irreversible consequences of an increase in housebuilding in an already over-heated Southeast, and where many communities in West Sussex lack even a weekly bus service.
The MP – who is a veteran of planning battles in Parliament – identified six major changes the government is making which will impact West Sussex:
(1) Making local authority housing targets mandatory. Under the previous government they are currently only advisory. This change gives a huge help to developers and robs local communities of their discretion.
(2) Changing the standard method of housing numbers to remove the presumption that existing urban areas should take more homes. The government specifically lowers the current housing target for London despite it being rich in social and physical infrastructure. Most communities in West Sussex lack even a weekly bus service yet London benefits from taxpayer subsidised 24/7 public transport.
(3) Insisting that local authorities have a continuous 5-year housing supply at all times, not just at the moment the local plan is ‘made’. This is a massive help to developers as it means if a local authority falls one single home behind its target, that area becomes a developer ‘free for all’.
(4) Introduces a “mutant algorithm plus” whereby there is an uncapped housing target multiplier based on the ratio of prices and local incomes which takes no account of factors such as retirees or long distance commuting. The impact of this will be felt almost uniquely in places like West Sussex and the southeast and see them have to take far,far more than their fair share of development.
(5) Forcing local authorities to have to identify new sites for solar farms and tripling the size of a solar farm development before they are required to go through national planning controls.
(6) Removing the current protections against building houses on the most productive agricultural land to aid the UK’s food security.
The South Downs MP said he will rigorously defend rural areas from top-down housing delivery and will respond to the anticipated consultation which should follow.
Commenting on today’s announcement, Andrew Griffith MP said:
“Today’s housing announcement is a disaster for West Sussex and is a developers charter.
“The reintroduction of top down ‘command and control’ targets builds nothing but resentment and removes the incentives of locally-led planning.
“West Sussex has taken far more than its fair share of housing and there is nothing in these changes which will provide more GPs, dentists, sewers or school places. And only yesterday the much needed A27 Arundel bypass was cancelled.”
“We are also seeing the government now impose solar farms in the countryside which are three times larger than the ones which have recently blighted local villages.”
Horsham which has been building around 600 homes a year faces a more than doubling to 1,300 homes a year! Arun, which has been building around 770 homes a year, faces an 80% increase to 1,400 and Chichester which has been building around 750 homes a year faces a 60% increase to 1,200 homes.
The three west of West Sussex districts together go from 2,120 homes to a staggering 3,900 EVERY year!
That is more than the City of Liverpool (2,090), Newcastle (1,345) or Bristol (3,057) or the whole of the central London boroughs of Westminster (3,792) or Tower Hamlets (2,177).
Yet at the same time, London – rich in physical and social infrastructure and one of the lowest density major cities in Europe – is having its target CUT by 20%.
*** There are just seven weeks to act! The consultation is open now and closes on Tuesday 24th September ***
Best way to respond is their deeply unfriendly portal at
https://consult.levellingup.gov.uk/planning/planning-reform
Planningpolicyconsultation@communities.gov.uk
