Will new housing targets actually fix our housing crisis?

There is no doubt about it – we are going to see lots more houses being built in the next few years.

The new government has a powerful mandate to create growth and tackle the housing crisis. To achieve this, it is proposing big changes to the planning system. We fear this could lead to more unaffordable houses being built in the wrong places.

Let’s start by looking at the numbers:

Using the proposed new housing algorithm, the annual housing target for Somerset will rise by a whopping 46% – from 2669 homes to 3891 homes each year.

Instead of starting from an up-to-date calculation of the need for new homes in that area, these new targets are based solely on the existing stock of housing.   They do not take account of our limited public transport, lack of employment opportunities and our already stretched schools and healthcare system. There are also other limiting factors such as the large amount of protected landscapes in Somerset. It’s a very clunky, unsophisticated way to try to fix the housing crisis.

Yet, this isn’t just a housing crisis, it’s an affordability crisis.

Of course we do need more houses.  Levels of homelessness have leapt 40% in the countryside in just five years. This crisis is being fed by record house prices, stagnating wages, huge housing waiting lists and a proliferation of second homes and short-term lets.

If we are going to fix this problem, we need the right kind of houses in the right place.  We need more rural affordable homes and more social homes for rent.  It’s a myth that large housebuilding targets bring house prices down. Indeed, they may have the opposite effect if developers look to buy more land. When prices do start to fall, developers slow down rather than sell cheaply.  It’s called land banking and it’s been going on for years.

We need to clear the backlog and also put brownfield first

Did you know that even in a rural county like Somerset, there is space to build up to 6,633 homes on brownfield land?

On top of this, around 18,000 new homes across Somerset are currently in limbo as a result of the phosphates crisis.  Building is stalled until a mitigation method is agreed to prevent the Somerset Levels and Moors being further damaged by high phosphate levels.

Time to stand up for the countryside

CPRE Somerset, Local CPREs around the country and the national CPRE charity are speaking with one voice on this crucial issue. Together we are submitting a full and detailed response to the Government consultation on planning changes. We are also meeting our local MPs to ask them to speak up for our rural communities and our countryside at this crucial time of change. Why not contact your MP as well, and ask them to stand up for our Somerset countryside?

A brief summary of our main message is captured in the images below.