Council Homes Strategy to Go to Government

Protesters have failed to stop councillors agreeing plans for 9,500 houses across part of Leicestershire.  Charnwood Borough Council backed the core strategy, saying a housing shortage had to be addressed. Councillors insisted it would also mean they could control bids from private developers more effectively. But campaign groups said important land would be lost and local services overwhelmed.  The strategy will now be reviewed by government inspectors who could suggest amendments before sending it back to the council for final approval next year. Read more on the BBC website.

Experts Call For Government to Reconcile Localism with Growth to Deliver Housing

A group of property experts led by Tristan Fitzgerald Associates (TFA) and BNP Paribas Real Estate has put together a paper assessing the impact that localism will have on future housing delivery and puts forward seven recommendations for how the Government will house the nation under localism. The research examined the effects of the proposed scrapping of Regional Spatial Strategies and Core Strategies on the forecast supply of housing across England. The results showed that half of England’s 291 local authorities have confirmed their housing target as being the same as set out in their RSS which translates to targets amounting to just over 85,000 new houses per year being confirmed. A further 14% of local authorities have confirmed a change with only 2% increasing their targets, while 12% made cuts. The average change among those authorities which altered their targets, both up and down, was a cut of 20.6%. The research also shows that of the remaining 36% of local authorities yet to confirm their targets 90% have indicated they will not be sticking with the RSS targets. Read more and download the paper at the BNP Paribas website.

20,000-Home Development on Hold after Localism Bill Fears

Plans to build 20,000 homes in Stevenage have been thrown out after the Planning Inspectorate deemed the council’s draft Core Strategy ‘unsound’. Stevenage is designated as a major housing and employment growth point in the regional strategy, the East of England Plan, which was adopted in May 2008. The plan involved Stevenage Council linking with North Hertfordshire District Council – who were planning to build 9,600 homes as part of an urban extension. However North Herts backed out of the expansion in June 2010 after Eric Pickles announced he would abolish regional strategies with the Localism Bill. Instead, powers are proposed for districts to set their own local housing targets and as such North Herts has begun work on setting its own target in anticipation of the passage of the Bill. The authority told the Inspector, Douglas Machin, it was unlikely that any local target would make provision for Stevenage’s needs. This convinced the Inspector that the growth of the town planned in Stevenage’s draft Core Strategy is now undeliverable. Read more on Inside Housing.