For planning policy fans this year Christmas really has come early! The rumours were true, and in the dying days of 2024 a new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is born. Everything I’ve read on this new policy, particularly the stated aims of a more flexible approach to building on greenbelt, as well as the Government’s policy of much higher house building targets for Stockport, suggests this will have big impacts for us here in Heald Green.
The new Government has come to power on a promise of building more new homes, the revised NPPF is one of the tools it is going to use to achieve this. The location of this new housing is undoubtedly one of the issues of our times.
The question that I want to start with, which I think has not been discussed enough in the debate, is “Why we need more housing in the first place?”
You don’t need a post graduate diploma in housing policy to figure this out, though conveniently I do have one. It’s pretty simple. The biggest driver of our housing shortage is that people are living much, much, longer. It’s the old people. Which is, of course, an amazing thing to celebrate!
So that’s demand. On the supply side, well a whole host of things. As a high cost, fixed asset, housing is not easy to construct. The private sector has conspicuously failed to deliver enough housing. There’s lots of blame shifting about planning being a check. But it’s certainly not harming the bottom lines of the house builders if they build slow and house prices stay high. It is striking that the only time the country has ever built enough housing for its people was a brief phase during the late 1960s and early 70s, when state intervention was at its highest. It illustrates how housing policy can change, that Labour and the Conservatives used to campaign in elections about who could build the most housing. Granted, some of this was very poor quality, and is part of the problem housing stock that needs replacing now.
Source: The debate: We need new homes, where should they go? – BBC News
The 1980s, when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher brought in the Right to Buy and stopped council house building, were a turning point. Instead of spending money on building new housing the state’s resources now go into paying out increasing amounts of housing benefit, subsidising the individual rather than bricks and mortar. This doesn’t increase the housing stock. In my opinion, this is one of the most consequential policy decisions in the last 50 years.
So, bringing us up to date. We now have a housing crisis. A massive housing crisis. In Stockport we regularly have over 200 people bidding for available social rented houses. Owner occupation is increasingly out of reach, even for the relatively wealthy. Our housing crisis will have far reaching consequences, with people bearing higher housing costs in old age. But also, the loss of the stability and security that comes with either a social housing tenancy or home ownership.
As councillors, my colleages and I frequently receive heart breaking stories of people in overcrowded housing, or local families whose private rented accommodation has been sold by the landlord. Leaving them facing homelessness as social housing is so hard to come by and private rents are beyond their means. For children uprooted from schools, when families have to move this is very hard.
Anyone who thinks we can realistically deny all housing development in Heald Green is not engaging with reality. Secure affordable housing is like food and water. An essential human requirement. It’s vital to give children a stable start in life and to the health and wellbeing of our community. Our children and grandchildren – the next generations need homes.
So, I’ve explained why we are where we are. What we need is the right new housing in the right location. Which moves me nicely on to my next question. Where do we put this housing? And, it would seem, whether we like it or not, whether we want it or not, our greenbelt is distinctly in the firing line…… and this is something I’m going to write about in my next blog.
Cllr Catherine Stuart
Background info:
The debate: We need new homes, where should they go? – BBC News
How ‘perfect storm’ blew away planned social homes England needs – BBC News
UK rent soars by average £3,240 since Covid, says Zoopla – BBC News
Stockport’s housing saga mirrors wider challenge for Labour planning reform