According to government proposals, local communities would be able to gain power to develop homes within their localities without planning permission being sought. It will be known as the “community right to build” programme and will allow people to build homes, shops, business space and commercial properties on green belt land, as long as enough people are in favour of the proposal. Persons wishing to develop can buy land for sale or building plots for sale on green belt land and build their ideal home if the community agrees. The government hopes that their plan will revitalise rural areas where there is a distinct lack of land for sale and building plots for sale.
Because of planning policy in place, green belt development is prohibited. although the government wants to remove the “red tape and bureaucracy of the current system” so that Locals will be able to live in their dream house. To allow the development to go onward would need an huge concensus of the local people ballot in agreement of any particular development in a special local referendum. So local communities can’t simply buy any land for sale or building plots for sale on any piece of Green Belt land and go straight ahead and build with no sort of permission, some rules will be put in place. there’ll be a localism bill by the government that states that any surplus profits made from the sale or rent of properties will be used for the benefit of the local area.
Grant Shapps, housing minister, said “It will give residents the power to give the green light to new homes that are suitable and appropriate for their local area. Also as locals are in charge, construction will only go forward with their the locals support. I want anyone with the vision and drive to develop homes in their local area to be able to do so.”
In favour of the plan is the Home Builders Federation, as they believe that it will make the planning system more flexible and less bureaucratic as there is a need for local housing. But not everyone is in favour of the plan. James Moss, director at Curzon Investment Property, a consultant in the property industry, said “In the real world the only people with the time to flavor planning meetings are those not in favour to development. Giving people a say is fine but this will lead to alot less houses being built at a time where we need to be thinking growth, not undermining it through some idealistic principle of empowerment.”
Another unbeliever was Andrew Teacher, spokesman of UK Property Federation, who said “Grant Shapps promised to make UK a ‘country of house builders’ but without clearness over local plans and sure thing over how much will get built, the economies of scale we need for a viable market do not stack up.”
So there are both sides to the contestation. On the one side the rural communities need local housing, there is not ample land for sale or building plots for sale for the local people to build upon. However others feel that this will only add to the housing shortage with fewer homes being built and the green belt being affected.
Reference: Financial Times 22 July 2010.
