South East England Councils (SEEC)’s report, Unlock the housing blockers, says that the body’s members are concerned about stalled or slow development on sites with planning permission, which is often due to widespread development industry business practices to balance supply and demand of housing to maximise profits.
Below is a letter to Councillor Tutt, Leader, Eastbourne Council from the South Downs Network, an independent, voluntary network of conservation, environmental and community organisations with an interest in the South Downs.
We urge CPRE Sussex's membership to write to Councillor Tutt to articulate their concerns about its plan to sell off the majority of its landholding in the South Downs.
Letter published by the West Sussex County Times 12 January 2017:
CPRE Sussex and other campaign groups including Noincinerator4Horsham were joined by local residents on Sunday 8th January as they held up banners and expressed their anger over plans to build a new £150m incinerator in Horsham.
Despite the outcry that Eastbourne Borough Council has faced since it announced its plan to sell off the majority of its landholding in the South Downs, this scheme is still being pursued.
Letter published Sussex Express
Thursday 5 January
If Kevin Froude thinks that granting planning permission for new housing at Mitchelswood Farm, Newick, will help solve the housing crisis then he is the one being naive. He certainly hasn’t understood this year’s Civitas and House of Lords reports, which show beyond all doubt that all it will achieve is to shift new housebuilding from sustainable urban brownfield locations, like Newhaven Marina or South Downs Avenue, Lewes, to the car-dependent rural greenfield sites in villages like Newick that house builders find more profitable.
The reports show that the recent increase in planning permissions has not been translated into extra housing. Instead developer land banks have grown.
So have the major house builders’ profits, as they focus on their most profitable sites. Their business model depends on steadily rising prices.
They will never choose to build enough houses to reduce prices, because it isn’t in their commercial interest. If we want more housing, then we need a new delivery model.
John Kay, CPRE Sussex
Rushey Green, Ringmer
Letter: Developers under no obligation to meet housing requirements
Written by Roger F SmithLetter published by the West Sussex County Times 29 December 2016:
Sir,
Neighbourhood Plans at risk: having a 5 year supply of housing is dependent on the performance of developers and house-builders that are under no regulatory obligation to meet 5 year requirements
According to Nick Herbert MP (WSCT 15 Dec 16), Housing Minister Gavin Barwell, has announced that neighbourhood plans would be protected for two years, unless there is a significant lack of land supply.
Ostensibly this is good news for communities that have ‘made’ neighbourhood plans.
But are Mr Herbert and the Housing Minister aware that having a 5 year supply of housing is dependent on the performance of developers and house-builders that are under no regulatory obligation to meet 5 year requirements.
Mr Barwell and Mr Herbert should read the report by Civitas:- ‘Planning approvals vs Housebuilding activity, 2006-2015’ (Aug16), which found that of the 2,035,835 new homes granted permission by local authorities over the period only 1,261,350 have been started.
The report concludes that this huge shortfall has accumulated because house-builders and developers are hoarding permissions in order to push-up house prices and profits and that “the key to building many more homes does not lie in increasing the number of permissions which are granted each year – but in ensuring that those permissions which are granted are built out much more quickly”.
It would therefore be helpful if Mr Herbert were to ask the Housing Minister to direct Planning Inspector’s to take into account this reality when deciding Appeals where Council’s are unable to demonstrate a 5-year supply of housing.
Yours faithfully,
Dr R F Smith for CPRE Sussex
Saving the Sussex Countryside - CPRE 90th Anniversary Celebration
Written by CPRE Sussex
Members, staff and friends enjoyed a delicious festive lunch at Tottington Manor Hotel on 7th December to celebrate CPRE’s 90th anniversary.
After some evident hesitation on the part of the Planning Inspectorate (PI), the public examination has started into the housing policies proposed by the District Council in their draft District Plan. MSDC has calculated the District’s need for new housing during the period 2014 – 2031 at 13,536 new homes, and planned to overcome PI criticism of its previously inadequate co-operation with neighbouring authorities by offering to build 864 homes towards the needs of Crawley BC which, like a number of adjacent districts, is unable to meet its own housing needs. To meet this need the draft Plan therefore envisages new houses being built at a rate of 800 p.a. throughout the Plan period – MSDC’s annual housing target.
