Housing masterplan needs a rethink

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jan/04/housing-masterplan-needs-a-rethink

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The government’s commitment, in the prime minister’s words, to “roll its sleeves up and directly get homes built” is very welcome (New housing plans signal policy shift by ministers, 4 January). For far too long responsibility for meeting the nation’s housing need has been outsourced to a few big firms who have demanded ever more greenfield sites and then failed to build enough new homes. Planning permissions are up, the big developers’ land banks and profits are huge, but housing starts have stalled.

At last the penny seems to have dropped that a serious public-private partnership is needed if we are to tackle the housing crisis. This will require more planning, not less. If we are to build homes people will want to live in for years to come, there must be as great a commitment to high-quality design and place-making as to numbers. And to ensure public consent for a mass programme of housing building, the vast majority of new homes should be built on sustainable brownfield sites.

Coming months will determine whether the government is really up for this challenge.Shaun SpiersChief executive, Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE)

• The government’s plans to build 13,000 houses for sale at just 20% off ludicrous market values is a fatuous response to the biggest housing crisis since the second world war. At best it will help those younger people on salaries far above the average, especially in London. Even a banker on £100,000 a year would struggle to raise a £400,000 mortgage, and that assumes a deposit of at least £50,000, far above the average salary at £25,000, and utterly unreachable by anyone else.

This is simply a prop for middle-class parents who can help their kids, and does nothing for anyone else. Ownership is not the problem, affordable homes for people are what are urgently needed and will, it seems, need a new government.David ReedLondon

• In 1966, when Ken Loach’s TV play Cathy Come Home highlighted the plight of the homeless, UK output was about 400,000 new homes. In 2014 output was 141,000 (UK builders hold back enough land for 600,000 new homes, 31 December). The “25% year on year increase in housing supply” mentioned by the Home Builders Federation spokesperson would still mean a growing backlog of desperately needed unbuilt houses for decades. James Armstrong Dorchester

• Here on the Isle of Wight, more than 3,000 planning applications have been approved by the council, to reach the island target of 520 houses a year, yet there is little activity on those sites. As you point out, land being hoarded can give a better return than other investments, and the land is basically cost-free as no council tax is paid while it lies idle. We need to change the system, especially where greenfield sites are being granted building permission. Full council tax should be levied on a site if buildings are not completed on an agreed timescale.

Only when it becomes uneconomic to hoard land, and more support is given to reuse brownfield land, can we hope to start to alleviate the shortage, and bring housing whether to rent or buy within the reach of the average earner.Bill MooreGunville, Isle of Wight

• There are many reasons why insufficient homes are being built at Ebbsfleet (Vision of Ebbsfleet Garden City for 65,000 struggles to take root, 4 January) but the masterplan plainly needs a rethink.

Related: Vision of Ebbsfleet garden city for 65,000 struggles to take root

First, we need to move on from the 20th-century garden suburb model. Its low densities squander precious building land and its design requires dysfunctional road layouts, ensuring people drive as much as possible, no longer acceptable in an era of climate change. Then the model needs redesigning to prioritise sustainable transport – walking, cycling and high-quality public transport, rail-based where possible. There is no reason Ebbsfleet and the adjoining towns shouldn’t enjoy one of the new simple light-rail schemes now being developed. Recent research shows getting people out of their cars needs more than access to a railway station.

Moderate increases in density don’t mean town cramming. Our Victorian and Edwardian ancestors built compact, functional and communitarian towns and cities. Garden city thinking eroded that and gave us a century of sprawl.

Lord Rogers is right that we should use brownfield sites in London first, but the Swanscombe sites are predominantly brownfield, and such is the pressure for unsustainable greenfield development in the south-east that we can hardly ignore it.Jon ReedsSmart Growth UK

• Could one reason developers have been reluctant to build houses at Ebbsfleet be due to the area being on a flood plain?Mabel TaylorKnutsford, Cheshire

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