14 October 2005
Opponents of new house building are grossly exaggerating the impact that it will have on rural areas in Southeast England, councils were told this week.
Even if the number of new homes built doubled over the next ten years, it would affect less than 1% of undeveloped land in the region because of higher density construction and better use of brownfield sites, said housing and planning minister Yvette Cooper.
'The idea that housing growth plans are going to pave over the Southeast is just ludicrous,' she told a Local Government Association conference in London on October 10. 'We are already managing to build more homes and introduce greater protection for the environment at the same time.'
But Cooper stressed that planners must be more responsive to market forces if first-time buyers are not to be priced out of a home. Just four new homes are being built in the South and East of England for every seven new households.
Figures published on the same day by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister reveal that just 36% of households under 30 have a mortgage, compared with 46% ten years ago. About half of 30-something couples can afford their own home now, but this could fall to 30% within 20 years unless house building increases, Cooper warned.
'Whatever gains we may make improving social mobility and tackling inequality through ending child poverty or improving working-class access to university, the housing market will be pushing us in the opposite direction,' she said.
The ODPM figures also show that problems with affordability are a threat to social mobility, with 23% of first-time buyers relying on gifts and family loans for a deposit.
The ministry has still to publish its response to last year's housing review carried out for the Treasury by economist Kate Barker. New planning guidance expected later this year will force local authorities to make more land available for new homes.
The new housing survey shows there are around 14.6 million owner occupiers, 3.7 million council or housing association tenants and 2.4 million people renting from private landlords.
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