Manifesto for
sustainable housing
The overriding objectives of the planning and housing
portfolio should be to make the use of the existing and new national housing
stock making it more – affordable, socially inclusive and environmentally
sustainable (taking into account measures of bio-diversity and carbon emissions
arising from both construction and use).
Previous governments have taken the view that the remedies
for the perceived failures of the planning system, including the provision of adequate
housing, are to be found in changing the law or regulations. Most if not all of the necessary measures can
be achieved through changes to policy.
Such changes can be implemented very quickly and at little or no public
expense. All the suggestions would ‘contribute
to the achievement of sustainable development’ (a legal requirement of planning
policy and control) and would benefit from the presumption in favour of
sustainable development described in the NPPPF as the ‘golden thread’ running
through both plan-making and decision-taking.
Using new development to re-balance the size of households
and houses should be given priority over new settlements which are likely to
increase rather than address this need (as they would incorporate a level of
under-occupancy that would then need to be addressed). New settlements also imply a high cost of
infrastructure provision (ie a 50% premium over urban expansion) and would are
unlikely to make better use of existing physical and social infrastructure.
1. Under-occupancy
In whichever way under-occupancy is measured (averaging over
1 spare reception room, 1 and more often 2 or more spare bedrooms – amounting
to about 15million spare bedrooms or the equivalent of nearly 30 years supply
of new dwellings at 250,00 per year), increasing the efficiency and
sustainability of the housing stock would appear to be the most pressing issue
to be addressed by the new Government. The ‘bedroom tax’ was introduced to
address this issue in the social rented sector but under-occupation is more
prevalent in privately owned and occupied housing and particularly by elderly
households. The levels of privately
owned empty properties and second homes are also unsustainable.
Proposals
– to extend
the council tax bands to cover the mostly larger dwellings that have become disproportionately more valuable
since the tax bands were established in 1991 as
an incentive to downsize. Remove the 25% discount for single person households and double council tax for both empty and
second homes (an appeal process for special
cases will require new regulations).
- the
‘bedroom tax’ regulations should be repealed.
The problem of under-occupancy in
the social rental sector should be addressed in the same way as in the private
sector, through the provision
of more smaller dwellings; affordable (including running costs) and conveniently located through either
new build or conversions/sub-divisions.
- a commission should be established to look at
the potential of a land value tax to possibly supersede the council tax (and
business rates).
- through a revision the NPPF should
require special justification for new dwellings
of more than two bedrooms – suitable for
both downsizers (that should include some with relatively large gardens) and new
households.
- the NPF should be revised o
require any dwellings of more than two bedrooms to be designed so as to be
easily and cheaply re-configured to form two smaller dwellings (a condition on
the original permission could permit this sub-division without further
application - a provision that might
require an amendment to the General Permitted Development Order - GPDO). Grants could be made available to pay for
sub-divisions.
- the NPPF should be revised to
support conditions being applied on planning permissions for new dwellings
requiring planning permission to be obtained for extensions that would reduce
the supply of smaller (more affordable
and more energy efficient) dwellings.
- the GPDO should be changed to
reduce the scale of extensions that could be built without express
permission that would make housing larger, less affordable and
less energy efficient. Express
permission and special justification should be required for significant
extensions and all at two storey extensions – with support for extensions that
would enable sub-division to smaller dwellings.
- the Right
to Buy should be repealed together with substantial improvements in the law/regulations applicable to the social
and private rental sectors in terms of security, and
control over rent increases. A ‘right to
stay’ should apply to those defaulting on payments
who have exercised the ‘right to buy’ – possibly through an equity release to a registered provider.
- both Help
to Buy and Funding for Lending should be repealed
- the
criminalisation of squatting should be repealed
2. Energy efficiency and reduction of
greenhouse gases
Under-occupancy is a substantial driver of carbon emissions;
inefficient use of building materials, wasted space heating and, by lower
population density reduces the level of use and viability of local services, including public transport. The difficulty that transport, energy
production, manufacturing, agriculture and leisure sectors will experience in
reducing their GHG emissions quickly and in accordance with the Climate Change
Act/Carbon budgets and 2011 Carbon Plan, places an additional burden on
buildings (including housing) where the technologies are available to reduce
emissions to below zero (becoming net producers of low/zero carbon energy).
Proposals
-
the confusion about the status of the Code for Sustainable Homes – currently
being addressed by the Building
Research Establishment - places the onus on local planning authorities to find
ways through the development plan system to prevent/refuse permission for development that does not benefit from the
NPPF ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’. The Government should continue to rely on the
planning system to make good the deficiencies in the Building Regulations in
this respect; water conservation/consumption, low carbon generation/allowable
solutions, bio-diversity protection,
creation and off-setting, post-occupancy evaluation and remediation.
- it should be made a condition of all
‘permitted development’ that the dwelling house as altered/extended should meet CSH Level 4 or an equivalent
standard (previously described
as ‘consequential improvements’ when proposed by the Coalition Government).
- it should
be a pre-condition of sale or lease that a dwelling comes up to a minimum standard (eg CSH Level 5) – with an
appeal procedure that can substitute ‘allowable solutions’.
- the NPPF
should explain why special justification should be required for new housing that is not terraced and with a southern
aspect.
3. Housing supply
The significant control and influence that a few large
building firms have exerted over the supply of new housing suggests that a
major reform to the supply of land for housing is required. There are indications that this country (compared
to examples in Europe) is short of opportunities for self/custom building by
individuals or groups. There is an even
greater shortage of opportunities for co-housing – the most affordable, efficient,
socially inclusive and, therefore, sustainable form of housing.
Housing in the countryside is an important component of
producing, processing and distributing ‘local food’. The supply of dwellings for which the
occupancy was restricted to those employed in agriculture has been depleted with the reduction of
those employed on the land.
Proposals
- both co-housing
and categories of self/custom-building need to be defined in the NPPF and then privileged by housing policies
at national (eg NPPF and Planning Policy
Wales) and local levels. This should be done by requiring a proportion
of all housing allocations and
permissions to be reserved for co-housing and
self/custom-building.
- the NPPF
should be amended to include co-housing and self-building (probably not custom building) in the category of
‘affordable housing’ within the quotas being required
by development plan policies (like affordable housing, self-building is already exempt council tax).
- To reverse the loss of agricultural
dwellings the NPPF should support local policies requiring one or two dwellings on developments on the urban/village fringe to
subject an ‘ag-tag’ and be part of the affordable housing requirement (see
previous blogs on planning and local food).
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