MPs call for moratorium on greenfield house building

6 Nov 08
House building targets should be revised in the face of the credit crisis to prevent greenfield sites from being developed unnecessarily, MPs said this week

07 November 2008

By Neil Merrick

House building targets should be revised in the face of the credit crisis to prevent greenfield sites from being developed unnecessarily, MPs said this week.

Instead of seeking to build 3 million homes by 2020, the government should alter planning rules and recognise environmental concerns, according to a report by the Commons environmental audit select committee.

Unless planning policies favour developing brownfield sites, councils will be powerless to prevent homes being built on green land even though the market has slowed significantly, said Greener homes for the future?, published on November 3.

Housing minister Margaret Beckett appears to be playing down the 3 million figure, having told the communities and local government select committee recently that it was 'an ambition' rather than a target.

The MPs claimed that up to 1.2 million new homes could be built by redeveloping vacant buildings. Eco-town plans should be re-examined so they were located closer to commercial centres. To make zero-carbon homes more attractive to developers, they added, the government should introduce 'feed-in tariffs', where homeowners with renewable energy sources are paid for feeding energy into the national grid.

Tim Yeo, chair of the committee, said the house building targets were set during a period of 'economic optimism and easy credit' and should be urgently reviewed. 'Once greenfield land is released for development, this land will be lost forever,' he added.

The following day, the government revealed that only one of the 12 sites being considered as potential eco-towns is definitely suitable. The site, at Rackheath, near Norwich, was not even included in the original short list earlier this year but replaced a former RAF site at Coltishall, Norfolk, which was struck off by assessors during the summer.

A detailed appraisal of each site by the Department for Communities and Local Government, published on November 4, showed that ten locations – including Middle Quinton in Warwickshire and Pennbury in Leicestershire, both of which have provoked protests – are suitable only if specific planning and design objectives are met. The twelfth site, at Weston Otmoor in Oxfordshire, received a grade C, which means it would be suitable only after 'substantial and exceptional innovation'.

Beckett said not all the sites will go forward to the final list because eco-towns faced the 'toughest ever green standards' for new development.

Meanwhile, a report, produced for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation by the Chartered Institute of Housing, has cast doubt on the value of shared ownership schemes. According to the study, published on November 7, the level of initial shares bought has dropped from 50% to 40%, with 25% also common.

Many new shared owners are single women on low incomes, who view shared ownership as a permanent solution. 'It cannot be regarded as a stepping stone to full home-ownership, since only about half of those moving home in the sector move on to full ownership,' said the study.

PFnov2008

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