SPAE - the Society for the Protection of Ascot & Environs, has issued a press release about the recent Government proposals. In August the UK Government published proposals to overhaul the planning system with the aim of speeding up development and building more new homes.
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said “These once in a generation reforms will lay the foundations for a brighter future, providing more homes for young people & creating better quality neighbourhoods and homes across the country. We will cut red tape, but not standards, placing a higher regard on quality, design and the environment than before. Planning decisions will be simple & transparent, with local democracy at the heart of the process.”
Most of the attention has centred around the proposed streamlining of the planning process but also announced were new targets for new house building based on a different method of calculating the need. The government intends to set a target of 330,000 new homes to be built each year compared with the current target of 270,000. SPAE is concerned about the possible implications of this because developers currently fall well short of the current target. It is well known in corporate life that if performance to a specific metric is falling considerably short of target the last thing to do is to INCREASE the target and make it HARDER to achieve. We believe that one likely consequence will be for the undesirable feature of so called “landbanking” to increase – where developers sit on land that they have acquired in the hope of achieving higher prices further downstream.
The table below gives an illustration on our local area. This clearly shows that, not only that the targets have been considerably increased, but RBWM and Bracknell Forest have failed to meet the current targets over the last five years by some margin.
|
Area |
Planning Authority |
Average Delivery (last 3-years) |
Current Standard Method |
Proposed New Standard Method |
Increase / Decrease |
|
Berkshire |
Bracknell Forest |
536 |
614 |
805 |
131% |
|
Berkshire |
Reading |
776 |
649 |
700 |
108% |
|
Berkshire |
Slough |
635 |
863 |
597 |
69% |
|
Berkshire |
West Berkshire |
513 |
513 |
692 |
135% |
|
Berkshire |
Windsor and Maidenhead |
584 |
754 |
914 |
121% |
|
Berkshire |
Wokingham |
1,231 |
789 |
1,635 |
207% |
|
Source: Lichfields https://lichfields.uk/grow-renew-protect-planning-for-the-future/how-many-homes-the-new-standard-method?national-blog |
|||||
S.P.A.E needs your support, please help us to protect our beautiful surroundings and become a member.
We are the Society for the Protection of Ascot and Environs and have been the planning watchdog for the people of Ascot, Sunninghill, Sunningdale and Winkfield for over 40yrs. It is with a large growing membership that we can maintain our effectiveness in ensuring local proposals conform to national, local and neighbourhood planning policies and do not damage the character of our area.
With new planning reforms waiting in the wings as part of the governments Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, we need your support more than ever. We want to encourage sympathetic developments that will take into account the needs and wants of the community whilst protecting our natural environment.
How can you help?
Please join over 600 local residents and become a member of SPAE. It's quick and easy to sign up via our website and makes our effectiveness even greater with the support of the local community behind us.
Please sign up at https://spae.org
Like and follow us on Facebook www.facebook.com/Spaeorg
Thank you for helping us to help you!