The Housing Minister, Grant Shapps, for his part has announced plans both to release


NIMBYISM R US Kevin Joyce


‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’


The opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities could quite aptly describe the current state of the UK housebuilding market. The upper end of the market, focused primarily on the wealthier parts of London, is powering forward largely on the strength of demand from overseas purchasers for quality housing in desirable locations, fuelled by the weakness of the sterling exchange rate. In comparison, much of the remainder of the market is in the doldrums, with national new start private sector and social housing numbers having fallen by 32% and 28% respectively over the last year, and gross mortgage lending having fallen by 14% over the same period. (1)


What is government looking to do to stimulate new development?


Quite a lot, it would seem.


Earlier this year a new piece of legislation, the Localism Bill, was announced which is due to be enacted early in 2012. The Bill in its current form proposes a number of changes including social housing reform, community empowerment to enable local communities (i.e. those on the electoral roll) to petition for a local referendum on a range of local issues, amendments to the Community Infrastructure Levy, the creation of Local Enterprise Partnerships to replace Regional Development Agencies, and in the area of town planning, both the abolition of regional town planning strategies and the introduction of neighbourhood planning.


Under neighbourhood planning, the intention is that local communities will engage more directly in local planning, and have the right to produce both neighbourhood plans and development orders which might include new or additional clauses of permitted development.


In July a draft new National Planning Policy Framework, expected to be adopted by April 2012 to replace some 30 Planning Policy Statements and Guidance, was introduced by the Minister of State for Decentralisation Greg Clark, with the Framework supporting the implementation of neighbourhood planning but also looking to encourage local Councils to take a positive and proactive role in supporting sustainable growth. This will be through the setting out of clear economic visions and strategies based on understanding business needs in different areas. Other key points in the Framework are that local Councils will be expected to produce rolling five year supplies of deliverable sites to meet their housing needs, and all local plans will be expected to set out the quality of development expected in different areas. (2)


THE TERRIER - Autumn 2011


£10 billion of public sector land to developers and housebuilders over the next four years, on a ‘build now, pay later’ basis, and to make £1.8 billion available to Councils, housing associations and housebuilders for the development of 80,000 new homes under government’s Affordable Housing Programme.


Will it work? There is much to be positive about then, or is there?


Whether or not these initiatives will succeed in an environment where there is low confidence in the prospects for national and regional economic growth, where housing development costs are increasing to meet targets to reduce carbon emissions, where there are now generally significant section 106 cost requirements attached to new development, and there exists the so-called ‘elephant in the room’ of artificially low interest rates which are predicted to increase in 2012 – 2013, seems open to question.


Additionally, it is unclear at this stage to what degree the introduction of neighbourhood planning under the Localism Bill will strengthen the position of nimbys intent on using the new local powers to frustrate all new development.


Local Councils appear to be unenthusiastic about the proposals contained in the Bill as it currently stands. A BNP Paribas Real Estate survey of 291 Councils, reported in a ‘Localism wrecks development’ article in Property Week,


Could simple yet striking housing designs help overcome local nimbyism?


indicates that Councils expect their new housing targets to fall following the introduction of the Bill. (3)


So what are the future prospects for the construction of new housing?


This is difficult to assess. In general, if new housing schemes should become increasingly unviable on development cost


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