22 March 2011
The government’s planning and housing changes are likely to exacerbate inequalities in England, experts warned today.
A report, published by the Town & Country Planning Association and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, concluded that the combined effect of the New Homes Bonus scheme and the abolition of regional planning policy would reinforce regional inequalities. Both were likely to result in more homes being built in wealthy areas, the report found.
This could have a long-term effect on the population distribution in England, the report said, but more work will be needed to estimate the extent of the effect.
In the short term, Housing Benefit changes were likely to affect a significant number of low-income households, which could intensify social segregation, the report added.
TCPA chief executive Kate Henderson said: ‘The potential inequalities of the housing and planning reforms play out at both a city scale, in terms of possible concentrations of deprivation, and at an England-wide scale in terms of reinforcing, rather than mediating, long-term regional inequalities.’
Henderson warned that outside London the planning system would have to deal with these challenges when both the framework and the resources to do so hadbeen significantly reduced.
John Hocking, executive director of the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, added: ‘These changes are complex and fast-moving and have major implications for how we provide for all types of housing, and particularly housing for those on limited incomes.’
The report makes a number of recommendations including a call for a new housing provision model, which would ensure that local authorities took account of the wider patterns of housing demand, as well as local need.
Last week, MPs warned that the abolition of Regional Spatial Strategies would leave a vacuum at the heart of the planning system.
