Housing Policy

Housing

What are the issues for the countryside?

New housing is responsible for the loss of more rural land than any other form of built development - over 50% of annual losses - and much new development has been unnecessarily intrusive and poorly designed.

There are huge threats to the countryside from the projections of an additional 4.4 million households (1991-2016) if mishandled. An area of rural land larger than Greater London will be urbanised if the projections are met without a change in planning and other policies.

Decisions over the scale and location of new housing distort other land use polices and have wider 'lifestyle' impacts on key issues such as mobility, urban renewal and social welfare.

CPRE priorities

CPRE's priority is to achieve an overhaul of the current approach to planning for housing development in which the status of the household projections is scaled down and the scale and location of new housing is based more on judgements about environmental capacity and social need - i.e. the right houses in the right places at the right prices.

Short term objectives include:

a more managed approach to housing numbers and the release of land at a regional level;
effective 'testing' of the environmental implications of RPG housing requirements in structure plans;
regional and county targets for social housing and extra resources to increase its provision;
new measures to control the rate of housing development and prevent development plan housing requirements from being overshot;
new requirements for local authorities to assess properly the capacity of the existing housing stock and urban areas when considering future needs.

Physical outcomes would include:
an increased proportion of new housing development in urban areas;
an increased proportion of social housing to rent;
a better match between housing development and the need signalled by the household projections (i.e. ageing population);
areas of countryside formerly earmarked for development saved and better housing design.

Campaign opportunities

CPRE is the major national environmental organisation influencing the housing / planning debate and is the key player locally. Key campaign opportunities include:

Structure and local plans - these should contain policies determining the scale and location of new housing development which avoid unnecessary environmental harm;
Regional Planning Guidance - assessing and challenging the housing requirements in RPG where these threaten unacceptable environmental harm;
pressing for a specific requirement for social housing to be included in development plans and large developments as part of the overall housing requirement;
resisting new settlement proposals which risk suburbanising the countryside and generating additional traffic;
examining development plan proposals and housing land availability studies to ensure an appropriate allowance has been made for unidentified windfall sites on the basis of historic provision to reduce the need for fresh land to be allocate;
firmly resisting housing development proposals that would damage valued environmental interests even where there is less than the five year supply of housing land currently require by Government policy;
critically examining the housing land supply at a county and district level where this significantly exceeds the five year requirement - this encourages too rapid a rate of development and reduces the ability to steer development towards the most appropriate sites;
monitoring building rates to ensure that development plan requirements are not likely to be exceeded and encouraging the inclusion of phasing policies in development plans;
questioning assumptions about the capacity of urban areas with a view to increasing the amount of development on previously used land;
pressing for plan policies and design briefs which require new housing development to respect local character and diversity.

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