The myths of the planning system
Green Belts and green field sites are not the same, though they are often confused either accidentally or deliberately.
One reason is that the political alliance to save the countryside is very strong, but to be successful there have to be a number of arguments that resonate with voters. By analysing these arguments we discover that they are as much folk myths as the view that British housing is the best in Europe:
- Britain is a small, overcrowded country - in fact only around eight per cent of land in Britain is urban, half the figure in the Netherlands and lower than Belgium, (West) Germany and Denmark. We are living in crowded and dense cities, not a crowded and urbanized country.
- Southern England is especially crowded, so new development should take place in the North - in fact the North West is the most urbanised region in England, and the South West and East Anglia are among the least urbanised.
- But the South is full of towns… - development is usually near major transport links, giving the impression of over-urbanisation. In addition, there is the psychological effect of travelling between cities - one travels slowly through urban areas but speeds through rural ones, giving a false impression as to the level of development.
- We're all getting older and will want smaller houses - in the last 32 years the number of households has risen by one-third, outstripping the growth of the housing stock. Besides, many older people do not want to move out of their houses, and nor should they be forced to.
- We need agricultural land to be self-sufficient - Britain has one of the highest proportions of land given over to agriculture in the world, and we produce agricultural surpluses. We are fully integrated in the world economy and rely on imports for almost everything, especially energy - being self-sufficient in food alone is pointless.
- Cities are bad for environment - interestingly, it seems that the kind of low rise, low density housing that planners and guardians of the countryside dislike is better for biodiversity than monocultural farmland.
- We need to live at high densities to protect the global environment - the planning system's emphasis on using brown field land often increases fuel use, as these sites are not always near existing development or people's work places. Taxation is a much more effective tool for reducing fuel usage.
- Building on brown field sites is always better - the number of brown field sites is heavily restricted, perhaps only fourteen per cent of the houses we need could be built on them. If we are only going to use these sites then house prices will continue to rocket and we will be living in very dense, crowded, high rise accommodation - just what we do not want.
- There are lots of empty buildings we could use - our vacancy rate is very low internationally, and some vacancy rate is required for the market to be flexible. There is a strong argument for saying we would actually benefit from a higher vacancy rate.
Reasons for change
Having dealt with the myths surrounding housing, we should look at the positive reasons for changing our
planning system. Rising house prices only benefit a small minority of the population - older homeowners who are trading down. Younger generations are deprived of the opportunity to buy houses of a size that their parents bought.
Just as importantly, British cities are becoming increasingly unattractive because green fields outside those cities are saved at the expense of densifying existing settlements. Cities are becoming monotonous agglomerations of small, low-quality dwellings, increasingly provided in tower blocks.
Constraints on the supply of land have led to increases in house prices. This accentuates the instability of the economy because people increase their spending as the value of their houses goes up (and decrease it as the value of their houses falls). The increase in land and house prices also makes it less attractive to work, live and do business in England. This has a long-term negative effect on growth.
Jul 06
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