Manifesto > Renewal: Championing progress with sustainability (Introduction) | Improving Transport | Facing the Energy Crisis | Science and Technology | Housing and Planning

Renewal: Championing progress with sustainability

Housing is a basic human need but one which has become ridiculously expensive for all and quite impossible for some. Houses now command a price far above their build cost due to the restrictions of the planning system. Although inflated property prices have fuelled the consumer boom, only now proving to be unsustainable, but it is also morally wrong.

Young people cannot afford their first property, many buyers have over borrowed and a growing number of people cannot get a house in their own area. The problem is set to get worse with an estimated 2.7 million additional single households forecast over the next 20 years. The number of new houses built in 2004 was the lowest for sixty years and the Barker report puts the current new-build shortfall at approaching 120,000 per annum. 

In addition to planning restrictions other factors are driving up prices. Many people have invested in buy to let properties, lenders are offering extended mortgages and tax policies often encourage people to live apart.

Not only are first time buyers over-extending themselves to get on the property ladder, but many householders who have seen their property prices rise are being encouraged to take out new loans. Any recession, or rise in interest rates, would be catastrophic for many of these people.

This is not only an extremely serious situation, it is quite unnecessary. The main objections to building on Greenfield sites, “shortage of land and damage to the environment,” do not stand scrutiny. There is no shortage of land as urban expansion accounts for only 0.05% of land use in any one year, or 1% over 20 years. Only 8% of land in Britain is urban, which is less than half that of the Netherlands and also less than Germany, Belgium or Denmark. On the environmental front, research clearly shows that low density housing with gardens is much better for biodiversity
than plain farmland. Much of our farmland has also now been placed on set aside, due to overproduction, and, as Third World food production improves, even more farmland will become surplus.

The biggest single impediment to house building is the planning system. Freeing up the supply of land would improve the supply of new homes, make them more affordable and benefit the environment.

"We now live in some of the oldest, pokiest and most expensive housing in the
developed world."
Unaffordable Housing Fables and Myths
The Policy Exchange

Free-zones for development

The New Party will permit local authorities to designate certain areas as planning ‘free-zones’ wherein planning consent for house building will be approved so long as developments include adequate provision for new jobs. To reduce the need to travel, ease congestion, increase social cohesion and add to the quality of peoples’ lives, it would also make sense to provide custom built new towns rather than impinge on existing settlements.

The purpose of these measures is three-fold: first, to make it easier to get planning permission on suitable Greenfield sites; second, to link house building to locally-based economic development (e.g., through the provision for commercial activity); and third, to assist in the development of integrated communities whereby people are able to work locally. This will also reduce the need to travel, ease congestion and benefit the environment. If we wish to maintain an adequate supply of affordable housing, then we must also stop thinking about houses as an investment which will always increase in value.

If we wish to maintain an adequate supply of affordable housing, then we must also stop thinking about houses as an investment which will always increase in value.

Selling off empty council properties

We also propose that local residents should be given the opportunity to purchase council properties that are left vacant for more than six months. The local authority would be compelled to put the property on the market upon receipt of a formal notice of interest unless one of the following conditions pertained:

• The property is currently in the process of being renovated or refurbished;
• The property is listed for demolition;
• The property has already been offered to prospective tenants and a decision is being awaited, or the prospective accepted;
• The applicant lives outside the local authority area;
• The applicant has already purchased a council house within the last three years.

The scheme would apply to single properties only.

More responsible lending

Finally, we will insist on more responsible lending practices (see page 13 LINK) including the requirement that mortgages can be given for no more than 90% of the value of a home. This, together with our proposals for freeing up the supply of houses above, will help to prevent house prices becoming unsustainable.

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