AMT Public

1     Government inquiries

Over the past five years there have been three significant government inquiries into the current planning system, the rural economy and delivery of affordable housing in rural communities, the Barker Review of Housing Supply 2004, the Affordable Rural Housing Commission 2006 and the Taylor Review of the Rural Economy and Affordable Housing 2007.

Barker Review of Housing Supply

Kate Barker was asked by Government in 2003 to conduct a review of issues underlying the lack of supply and responsiveness of housing in England, considering:

• The role of competition, capacity, technology and finance of the house-building industry
• The interaction of these factors with the planning system and the Government’s sustainable development objectives.

The report was published in 2004 and made 36 wide-ranging recommendations calling on central and local government, industries and planners to address the problems in Britain’s housing supply. These recommendations have strongly influenced government policy and you will note reference made to this inquiry in the majority of guidance around planning and affordable housing supply.

The recommendations were:

• Government should set out a goal for improved market affordability.
• Additional investment building-up to between £1.2 and £1.6 billion per annum will be required to deliver additional social housing to meet projected future needs.
• Introduction of a Planning-gain Supplement to capture some of the development gains that landowners benefit from, to ensure that local communities share in the value of development.
• Establishment of a Regional Planning Executive to provide public advice to the Regional Planning Body on the scale and distribution of housing required to meet the market affordability target.
• Introduction of flexibility at the local level through the allocation of additional land in Local Development Frameworks, with the release of this additional land triggered by market signals.
• Establishment of a Community Infrastructure Fund to help to unlock some of the barriers to development.
• Local authorities should be allowed to “keep” the council tax receipts from new housing developments for a period of time to provide incentives for growth and to meet transitional costs associated with development.

Affordable Rural Housing Commission

The Affordable Rural Housing Commission was set up in July 2005 by DEFRA and CLG to inquire into the scale, nature and implications of the shortage of affordable housing for rural communities in England and make recommendations to help address unmet need.

The main findings from the Commission were:

• There is an acute shortage of affordable housing in many rural areas in England which is a matter of urgent priority.
• The need for flexible solutions to housing issues should be based on local research.
• The Commission’s message is that Planning Authorities should ask far more of developers and that government should spend more on rural affordable housing
• The countryside is not solely about the landscape but the communities within it. This means that the needs of people, particularly a need as basic as housing, should be taken into account alongside those of the environment and the economy.
• Without more affordable housing, those on lower incomes will increasingly be excluded from living in many parts of the countryside, offering the next generation little choice but to move away to find homes. Families separated by distance will be less able to support each other by providing childcare or doing shopping for elderly relatives, and local services will become increasingly difficult to maintain.
• Having worked hard to make urban areas more attractive and sustainable, we will look back and find we have created rural areas which are less sustainable and increasingly socially polarised.

Recommendations made:

• The Problem and ‘Meeting the Need’.

Consistent means of measuring need is developed which can be operated on a bottom up basis at local, regional and national level.

• Improved Delivery by Positive Planning

The Barker Review of Housing Supply – rural areas should share in the housing growth which is planned following the Government response to the Barker Review of Housing Supply. This will help deliver affordable housing through cross-subsidy from market housing.

Sustainable development – Government commits itself to seeking sustainable development in rural communities as well as urban ones.

Planning – Delivering rural housing must be part of the mainstream planning system instead of being treated as an option once the bulk of needs have been met in urban areas. Whilst exception sites are a useful tool, particularly for small settlements, the Commission suggests local need should be met predominantly through the allocation of sites for affordable and market housing in local planning documents.

Good design

How new houses are built can greatly reduce their environmental impact, increase their acceptability to the community and enhance the built environment of rural communities.

• Better Finance for Rural Affordable Housing

Housing as a sound investment

Innovative ways have been found to bring the private sector, landowners and not-for-profit organisations such as Community Land Trusts into the provision of affordable housing.

Supply of affordable housing

Local authorities should use all the tools at their disposal to generate more cross-subsidy from open market development for social rented and intermediate market housing.

Rural programme

Even with a higher level of private house build, there will still be a need for substantially greater public investment. The Commission recommends that the Housing Corporation (now Homes and Communities Agency) increase funding directed to rural areas.

• Ensuring a Supply of Sites

Public land

The Commission recommends an extension to national partnership working between public bodies to speed up the release of land in rural areas which is owned by the public sector.

• Retaining and Making the Best Use of Existing Housing

Holding on to what we have got

We need to halt the erosion of affordable housing stock in rural areas and ensure that new development is safeguarded for future generations. For many years it has been eroded faster than it has been replenished and is now at a lower level than in urban areas.

• Making It Happen

The biggest gains are to be had from every local authority picking up and using the existing tools, and adopting the innovative approach evident in some.

Taylor Review of the Rural Economy and Affordable Housing 2007

In September 2007, the Prime Minister asked Matthew Taylor (MP for Truro and St Austell) to conduct an independent review to investigate how the planning system and land use could better support the sustainability of rural communities in England.

Matthew Taylor said: “The English countryside is a wonderful place to live and work – if you can afford a home, if you can find a reasonably paid job. But for too many people country life is challenging and urgent action is vital to stop villages dying and our market towns being wrecked by unsympathetic development’’.

The main findings recommended a fundamental shake up of planning and affordable housing policy is vital to breathe new life and prosperity into rural communities. The high cost of homes coupled with the low wages of rural workers are creating unsustainable pressures that threaten the future of rural communities.

With the flight from cities to the countryside (the rural population has grown by 800,000 people in the last decade, twice the rate of urban areas) driving up house prices, young families are being priced out of the communities in which they work.  Average wages for people working in rural communities are now £4,655 lower than the national average, while first time buyer homes (the cheapest 25%) cost £16,000 more. A mortgage now costs a higher proportion of average income in the South West than in London.

This report has an excellent section on market towns outlining the potential implications for many market towns that could be subject to significant growth over the next decade. In order to achieve a more sustainable future, the report recommends using the outcomes of best practice exemplar projects, such as Poundbury (Dorset) and Easingwold (North Yorkshire).

• new planning policies to shift growth of market towns from endless bland housing estates to create instead new neighbourhood extensions with shops and community facilities, workplaces and open spaces;

His report outlines a series of recommendations under the themes of; a living, working countryside; Living, working market towns; Living working villages: community-led affordable housing; and Living, working rural economies; and unblocking the system.

Living Working Countryside proposes:

• Planning policy (Planning Policy Statements and Planning Policy Guidance) should be reviewed as a whole to simplify and end conflicting messages over sustainable development to ensure economic, social and environmental factors are properly balanced;
• ‘Tick box planning’ based on a narrow range of sustainability criteria should be transformed into processes encouraging a long-term vision of what rural communities can and should be, to end the ‘sustainability trap’ in which villages deemed ‘unsustainable’ continue to decline.

On market towns:

• Planning policy should discourage unsustainable estate developments ‘doughnutting’ market towns. The Government should introduce new planning policy and an exemplar programme to encourage master planning the long term growth of market towns to create ‘new neighbourhoods’ and ‘community extensions’ which are attractive places to live, work and play, including local shops, workplaces, community facilities and open spaces;

• Encouragement for new development on brownfield (previously developed) land to protect the countryside is supported – but the review calls on the Government to examine unintended consequences such as ‘urban cramming’, inappropriate loss of gardens and other urban green space, and to encourage development to include more publicly accessible green space serving old and new communities as market towns grow.

On affordable housing for villages:

• A new ‘community led affordable housing’ initiative, encouraging rural communities to develop small groups of affordable housing for local people to rent or buy where they meet criteria of local support, good design, and are affordable in perpetuity to meet local housing needs;
• New encouragement for landowners to offer land for this affordable housing at affordable prices, including options for nominating a family member or employee for some of the property if that helps bring forward more affordable homes needed for the community;
• The review also examines the issue of second homes and concludes that they raise issues for a relatively small number of smaller communities where lack of full time residents puts schools and other services at risk. It suggests the Government should trial planning rules designed to control further conversion of full time homes to second homes/holiday letting in one or more of the national parks.

To boost rural economies and employment:

• That new planning policy better recognises that all forms of business can be appropriate in the countryside, and proposes an end to planning rules and practices that encourage small rural businesses to move out of the countryside into urban centres as soon as they start to grow;

• New policy should support a more flexible approach to work-based extensions to homes to encourage home-based working and in particular start up businesses in the countryside to grow and take on their first employees;
• An exemplar programme to bring forward new rural business hubs and live/work clusters to support and encourage small rural businesses;
• Housing Associations should end bans on people setting up a home-based business in social and affordable homes.

2          Barriers faced in providing affordable housing within the market town

Are we designing market towns where people of all ages can and want to live?

The Taylor review noted that market towns face huge growth over the next decade yet present planning policies do not deliver the attractive new neighbourhoods that enhance existing communities.  Market towns are often ringed by unattractive and unsustainable housing, business and retail estates.

The Housing Green paper (page 6) has made a commitment to build 3 million homes by 2020 and the greatest proportion of planned new housing will take the form of extensions to existing towns, including the growth of many larger rural settlements.  It is time to stop dealing with this growth figure as one housing estate at a time and start to plan for places that work, vibrant new neighbourhoods and community extensions that enhance not separate our market towns.

The case studies provided evidence that:

• People in the town did not feel there was a sense of community, with it being split between two areas as previous development had not created a town centre.
• Growing and ageing population, local people not able to afford house prices due to town’s position within London Commuter Belt Sub Region.
• The ageing population (grey pound) and the now characteristically quiet weekly commuter town feel are having an effect on the economy and ‘make up’ of the town. People cannot afford to work and live locally; they buy houses outside the area (Bedfordshire) and travel in to work.

Is the new place shaping agenda working?

The Taylor review commented that Local Development Framework and Local Area Agreements were meant to encourage local authorities to deliver a new ‘place shaping’ role.  He concluded that most rural development is developer led resulting in a piecemeal approach to development, assessing the supply of homes on a year on year off basis but not places with a mix of services, employment opportunities or significant green spaces.

The case studies provide evidence that:

• Developers are not keen to provide a percentage of affordable homes on market sites and in some local authorities planning permission is granted for new development without affordable housing or instead offering financial contribution.
• Conversions, demolitions and Right to Buy have resulted in less affordable homes being provided and existing affordable housing stock diminishing.  Any new supply is actually making up the deficit in council housing and housing association provision.
• Housing Associations cannot compete with private developers to purchase brown field sites within the development boundaries of market towns.

• People living in areas affected by low demand, with low employment levels and deteriorating properties.

• Limited housing choice with homes valued at prices significantly below local averages – difficult to move (even when home is not fit for purpose).  People have found themselves trapped in homes they cannot afford to maintain or improve (unpopular area and in poor condition).

Affordable housing in market towns is necessary to sustain communities?

The Affordable Rural Housing report reported that without more affordable housing, those on lower incomes will increasingly be excluded from living in many parts of the countryside, offering the next generation little choice but to move away to find homes. Families separated by distance will be less able to support each other by providing childcare or doing shopping for elderly relatives, and local services will become increasingly difficult to maintain.

The case studies provide evidence that:

• Cost of housing has increased over recent years, with people not being able to move within current housing markets.

• High house prices in and around the National Parks exclude local people from living in these communities threatening social and economic sustainability.

• There are 7,374 second homes in Cumbria, the majority – 4,136 – concentrated in and around the Lake District National Park.  Most of the others can be found in the Eden Valley and the Solway Coast Area of Outstanding National Beauty.

• In some market towns housing developments in the past have been focussed at the top end of the market, 4 to 5 bed-roomed and selling for £300,000 plus, out of the reach of many local people.

• Popularity of market town as a tourism economy has pushed house prices beyond the level of local incomes.
• Hitchin has a large farming hinterland, these communities also not sustainable as house prices too high for residents.
• Many home owners have been in the same dwelling for over half a century and since real prices and rents have risen a lot, equity holding is now a major factor in creating a high price and high demand for housing.
• High house prices are due to the popularity of the area.  Low wages and seasonal work mean buying a home is out of the reach of local residents.  As a result, many people have left the area; this has affected the community demographics and created a seasonal economy.

Credit crunch impacting on people’s housing choices in market towns?

The Taylor review recommends that new planning policy better recognises that all forms of business can be appropriate in the countryside, and proposes an end to planning rules and practices that encourage small rural businesses to move out of the countryside into urban centres as soon as they start to grow.

Our case studies provided evidence that:

• Growth in number of people employed on minimum wage and insecure service sector jobs impacts on their housing options.  Cumbria’s household incomes are below national and regional averages.
• There is uncertainty over the future of key areas of the Cumbrian economy (nuclear, defence manufacturing and agriculture).  This makes decision making for investment in housing difficult.  It is also a remote area with declining levels of value added economic activity meaning there will be less money available to invest in housing by individuals.
• Plans for a University of Cumbria may add to pressure at the less costly end of the housing market.
• Limited economic and housing opportunities for young people undermine balanced communities.
• Concerns raised by business community, over the concentration on affordable housing and housing developments, perhaps equal effort and research needed into building small business units, to maintain town’s economy.
• The economic recession has affected many major housing schemes.

• Low wages make it difficult for people to remain in the area; there is a need for good quality affordable housing.

Opportunities to overcome barriers

The Taylor review commented that housing growth will happen whoever is in Government locally or nationally, but the need for growth should not be a signal for future development to be the same as that in the past.  As estates continue to grow in this way, there will be a ‘doughnutting’ effect on the traditional market towns, where people living in them have to travel into work and shop.  With no grand vision, there will be no community cohesion and no sense of place.

Community Participation

Communities need to feel they belong to a place and have an opinion or ownership over how it develops.

• Communities need to recognise the need for change and understand the processes that will result in change.  Coalville Residents Association and Wells Area Partnership were able to become involved with the future of their areas.  In Wells next sea the community working with the District Council, had identified their needs and used local resources (rented properties) to help alleviate problems with lack of affordable housing.

• Local Businesses need to be included as they create the economy that ultimately supports the housing market.  In Wells nest sea visitors are attracted to the area, because it still is a working fishing town and has good all year facilities which service the needs of locals and those that retire and visit the area.  People in these tourism based businesses support the need for a balanced community; ‘Homes for Wells’ website has a number of sponsored links to self catering and leisure businesses.
• In Whitehill Borden the town is working in partnership to build a sense of community with different regeneration projects, all in preparation for the Eco Town development.

Developed approach to place making

A good approach to place making would cover everything from good design of buildings, to how residents would access services, to the environment within which the buildings are built – improving housing supply and neighbourhood quality.

• In low demand areas the potential impact of unsightly and poor quality housing has on an area attracted ‘Renew’ funding ensuring a comprehensive development of the Coalville estate.  Rather than a piecemeal approach to development of new housing without tackling issues with the existing community.

• Active development within market town using existing brown field site will help maintain the historic town centre, and help it to remain a place where people live and work.
• A small amount of housing can make a big difference to areas within market towns.  There is an opportunity for small local developments on infill sites to generate work in the local economy by providing 2 to 3 homes.  This will help the sustainability of the town and the same policy could be adopted in the smaller surrounding villages.

Mix of tenure provides a social mix necessary in creating a diverse community

In order to support a social mix of people with different backgrounds and incomes affordable housing should be integrated within sites and developers should be encouraged to provide a % of affordable housing on all new development.

• Within the many constraints to developing affordable housing and lack of supply in the housing market as a whole, there is an argument for more market housing that goes beyond meeting demand, because of its bringing a substantial affordable housing number with it.

• Planning policy should help developers provide affordable housing, advice given on current housing need, additional costs (contamination and flooding). In Penrith Eden District Council employ a dedicated Affordable Housing Officer to work with developers.

• In some areas the recession has helped unveil the affordability gap in the market for 1 to 2 bedroom properties by reducing market value and making them affordable for first time buyers. Developers are beginning to build such properties in smaller developments and guarantee a return on investment.
  • In Coalville, Renew North Staffordshire are considering an initiative to allow owner-occupiers living on the Coalville estate, to improve their homes to bring them into line with the properties being refurbished by Renew.
  • Market towns act as a geographical centre for many rural hinterlands and they have a role in providing specialist accommodation with a level of support for vulnerable groups.  In Penrith Foyer schemes provide secure housing for young local people, to remain in the area, ensuring sustainability of the town & a balanced community.

Partnership working

Delivery of affordable housing in market towns needs to happen as part of a larger vision of green spaces, employment opportunities, schools, shops and pubs.  In order for this to happen all the interests that have decision making responsibility for these services need to have some level of involvement or information on housing supply.

• The case studies revealed a wealth of partnerships between private developers, RSL and local authorities.  Some had gone a step further a brought in the community as part of that partnership.

Diverse funding opportunities

Housing Associations the main providers of affordable housing in England are clearly experiencing strain on their own resources that could be used to develop affordable housing as a result of the current recession.  Increasing funding for affordable housing by lobbying is not necessarily the right way forward.   Government has rolled out specific funding for projects that cover a wide range of social and environmental concerns within a community, such as the Eco-towns programme.  Such a status could attract funding for associated projects.

• With the ex military brown field site on the fringes of Whitehill Borden being awared Eco Town status, this will provide much needed affordable housing and  help solidify the regeneration process.
• In addition the Eco Towns status has attracted funding for associated schemes.   Whitehill Bordon has been awarded a grant of up to £500,000 to retrofit existing privately owned homes (energy efficient).  East Hampshire District Council applied to the Department of Energy and Climate Change at the end of last year to become one of the communities in the Low Carbon Communities Challenge.

Go to Part VII:  The Credit Crunch