CPA News Archive 2024
December 11th, 2024
CPA Releases New Report: 'Homes for Everyone' The report, with foreword by Chris Packham, argues that the countryside is at grave risk from a government hellbent on achieving its sky-high targets
Keir Starmer seeks to bulldoze everything and everyone. At a stroke, he is dismissing the very genuine concerns that local people have about the impact of housing on the environment and infrastructure or services.
It is a misguided approach. He will simply find stiffer opposition and more legal challenges.
In reality, though, his housing proposals make it hard to distinguish Labour from the Conservatives.
For one thing, 1.5m new homes over a five-year parliament, is the same target as the Conservatives: 300,000 per annum. They have not achieved that and nor will Mr Starmer. That’s because he does not understand how developers think or how things need to be funded.
He wants to build social housing. Great news! In the much discussed ‘housing crisis’, it’s the one and a half million people on the social housing waiting list who face a real crisis.
So will Labour be funding homes for these people? No. Just like the Conservatives, Labour wants the private sector to do the heavy lifting. It is a tried, tested and failed approach.
Labour wants to build new towns. New towns are easy to talk about. The Conservatives have been trying to build them (disguised as garden towns) for years. But a new town is very complex and expensive to deliver.
The bigger the development you build, the more infrastructure it needs.
In financial terms, new towns sink themselves under the weight of their own infrastructure. Developer contributions cannot pay for that, so the government will have to intervene.
There are three recent examples illustrate the pitfalls: Ebbsfleet Garden City in Kent which has needed a £200 million pound government injection and yet many of the public transport promises have not been delivered.
Or in North Essex, a new ‘town’ at Colchester which required government funding to build a link road but will now see only a short spur road.
Or you end up with a giant housing estate with no soul, such as 20,000-home Northstowe, Cambridgeshire, which has been described as a ghost town.
With modern new towns, there is always a mismatch between the original promises and the dismal reality.
Building on ‘grey land’ is Labour’s third big idea. It appears to refer to wastelands near urban areas or in the green belt. This is, on the whole, a sensible approach, so long as each site is assessed on its own merit.
Some of the ‘scrub’ land that Labour has its eye on is a species rich wonder-habitat, as, in fact, are many brownfield sites.
Mr Starmer can get on his bulldozer but he will not deliver 1.5 million homes. He won’t build a single new town and sadly, he will not do what should be the most natural Labour thing to do – support the needy with a funded social housing programme.
Rosie Pearson
Chairman
December 3rd, 2024
CPA Submits Evidence to Environmental Audit Committee
Community Planning Alliance responded on 3rd December 2024 to the UK Parliament Environmental Audit Committee who asked for evidence on the Government’s proposed new NPPF.
Our submission states that CPA does not believe that the revised NPPF will support the protection and enhancement of the environment. The approach taken by the Government to setting housing policy risk placing growth and targets above all other factors, at great risk to the natural environment. The environment is barely an afterthought and, instead of setting policy that aims to meet the need for homes (as opposed to demand) while also protecting the environment, Government has placed the onus squarely on meeting un-evidenced housing targets that do not solve the housing crisis.
Our assertion, in a paper due to be published soon, is that we can have homes for everyone (people and nature included) long before we have to tap into our precious green spaces. This can be done by insisting on a greenfield last approach in which greenfield can only be built on once a council has demonstrated that it has renovated empty homes, repurposed commercial buildings, encouraged letting of rooms in houses, reused all brownfield land, maximised density and seen the majority of planning permissions built out. Clearly this will need support and financing from the Government.
We note that, while Labour’s manifesto pledge was for 1.5m homes, its proposed Standard Method results in 1.85m homes and that, in addition to this, there will be new towns of 10,000 homes or more. As far as we are aware, there has been no Sustainability Appraisal for the proposed NPPF, the Standard Method, for the new towns, nor for the cumulative impact of these initiatives.
Sustainable development will only be achieved if communities are fully engaged and the Community Planning Alliance can provide insights, expertise and experience from the 700 campaigns registered on our map.
August 1st, 2024
CPA Comments on the New NPPF: Targets on Steroids, Affordable and Infrastructure Promises on Placebos
We’ve tested Labour’s planning proposals against our three campaign principles and are very concerned that the drive for growth will not result in homes for those most in need, protections for the environment or the necessary infrastructure to support the huge proposed increase in homes.
Exuberant celebrations from the development lobby indicate who is most likely to benefit. The lack of understanding of how the system works means we risk a huge increase in car-dependent, infrastructure-last greenfield developments without appropriate levels of affordable housing, leaving brownfield undeveloped. Housing targets are on steroids, while the promises remain on placebos.
July 10th, 2024
CPA Writes to New Labour Ministers
The Community Planning Alliance seeks to bring together communities campaigning against inappropriate development so that they can support each other, ensure consultation regulations are followed and initiate positive change that benefits citizens (not shareholders).
As an organisation, we seek:
- greater participation for communities in planning
- greater environmental protections
- the right developments & infrastructure in the right places.
On the subject of community participation, Labour leadership must understand that communities are not “blockers” as they do not have the power to prevent development. “Nimby” is a pejorative term that is used to undermine those with genuine concerns about planning proposals. Instead, let’s see moves towards co-creation and engagement for positive outcomes.
When it comes to the environment, we need the Labour leadership to provide direction through a focus on sustainability, nature, biodiversity and climate change in their proposals for planning. It is imperative that all policy changes adhere to the Environmental Principles policy statement which sets out how to support environmental protection and enhancement, with the aim being to leave the world in a better state. Pandering to developers who wish to build on irreplaceable habitats, best and most versatile agricultural land, and other sites of ecological or environmental importance should be unconditionally discouraged.
And finally, we need the Labour leadership to bring more affordability to housing. However, relying on the private sector to deliver will bring neither numbers nor affordability.
New towns will need public funding to succeed, infrastructure (including sustainable passenger and freight transport, school places, green spaces and health services) must be delivered in advance of those growth plans. Nationally significant infrastructure projects should be delivered with full engagement before decisions are made and in accordance with the Treasury Green Book guidelines, to ensure best outcomes for tax-payers.
When planning for development, there is always a balance to be struck. Growth is only one side of the scales. Climate mitigation, nature’s recovery and future food security must also be considered.
Sustainable development will only be achieved if communities are fully engaged and the Community Planning Alliance can provide insights, expertise and experience from the 600 campaigns registered on our map.
January 19th, 2024
CPA Chairman Rosie Pearson in The Telegraph on why "Planners shouldn't be getting abused - but neither should the people who oppose them"
So when I heard about a new campaign to persuade the public to support planners, rather than abuse them, my first thought was: “Hang on, why are they making us public enemy number one, here?”………….
To read the rest of the article see link below (behind paywall)