8 NEWS FEATURE


Can cities like Brighton be expected to deliver a 35% housing uplift?


of the city centres offi ce space has been protected under rticle .


Flo Powell of Midnight Communications reports from a recent housing event held in Brighton, which looked at the feasibility of the city producing the required 35% housing uplift for its residential demand, in the context of the need to protect offi ce space.


M


eeting at the brand-new Projects space – so new, in fact, this was the fi rst event to be held in the shiny building on ile treet in righton  the latest Construction oice event which was hosted by the righton Chamber of Commerce was held on  uly. d lison-right of aydon Consulting chaired the panel which included i obden head of planning at righton  ove City Council CC ill oole- ilson  of architects ill  artners elvin aconald specialist adviser to current elect Committee inuiries into planning and eter oster public policy editor at the Financial Times. elvin is also chair of the righton ousing Trust and a senior fellow at the ept. of and conomy niversity of Cambridge. The panels aim was to discuss recent planning reforms as well as increased housing targets in righton and ove and how achievable this will be in the near future especially among the current political upheaval. To try to get more housing built in the  recent planning reform made it easier for developers to turn old buildings often offi ces into residential buildings without going through the usual planning permission reuirements. rticle  directions give local authorities the power to push back on this and protect certain buildings and in righton much


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The other important factor to note is that rightons housing needs were recently raised due to a fall bac on government set needs with a  uplift along with many other cities around the country taing our target from  a year to . iven that the city has only once met the  target in the last decade to say this raised a few eyebrows would be an understatement. ill iced off proceedings by setting the scene that since the pandemic the world has fractured. oring from home is not the norm in other countries lie it has become in the . e said there is no evidence to say that woring from home is a good idea and until theres evidence were living in a weird paradigm of assumption that the  woring wee wors  and given that were not asing the same of schools were not teaching the future generation that this is the norm and the trend could well be reversed. i eplained that in ecember  the  overnment had  responses to its planning reform hite aper and many conservative districts were concerned about the number of homes theyd need to provide.


The overnment therefore came up with a way to deliver its target of  new homes a year by increasing the housing targets of  cities by   which included righton  ove  to reduce the pressure on smaller towns. In the last four years CC has permitted more than  homes a year but these tae a while to get through planning and once consented to actually get built. o while there are developments happening well never achieve this lofty target without a more realistic plan. In  CC introduced rticle  to protect offi ce space in the city centre to try to mae sure we have a balanced and sustainable city with a strong economy. In  righton lost a lot of affordable offi ce space to permitted development  although this wasnt rade  by any means this space couldve supported more of the citys s.


In ugust  Class  buildings often retail and leisure units were granted permitted development rights to convert straight to residential use without planning permission although there is a sie limit of up to  m


. righton is a highly constrained city so theres a lot of


pressure for non-residential space to be converted into homes.


hen ased does the national housing target still eist elvin said it does but it could all change depending on who gets the  ob. i Truss has said she wants to abolish top-down hitehall-inspired targets, reduce red tape and introduce ta cuts. ichael ove before he left post said the overnment will tae steps to ensure the planning directive doesnt impose housing targets on local communities that cant be met. ccording to eter oster of the FT, the manifesto housing targets were bac of a fag pacet fi gures and given that most cities vote abour and most towns are Conservative the  uplift refl ected the political reality that for Tory politicians it is easier to build in urban rather than rural areas. nfortunately for some cities the targets are utterly unachievable. In heffi eld for eample the overnments own proections for population growth would have to increase signifi cantly by  ust to have enough people to house if the  increased housing target was met. The Tories are convinced that densifying cities is the way to go and as long as they are in charge this situation is unliely to change.


This is what we may well be faced with especially in a ishi una-run country while i Truss who has a more supply- side approach might be more liely to loo to build on green belt land. ill described his wor with Tower amlets which in the beginning didnt see Canary harf as a good thing until the local authority realised they could get more from business rates than they ever could from council ta from residents. ith the proection that  of the worlds population will live in urban centres by  its going to be all about placemaing  creating places for future generations to live wor and enoy. ccording to ill righton is often an immediate pin in the map for corporates looing for bases outside ondon but we simply dont have the suare footage of rade  space available so many of them choose irmingham or Cambridge instead.


In righton the pressure for affordable housing is huge with  people on the waiting list. or hospitality consultant and local resident ridget aer having  irbnbs listed in the city was something that should be looed at


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