A Personal Vision for More & Better Quality Housing
KEN DAVIS
The greatest mistake made with the provision of public housing by successive governments has been to concentrate on numbers rather than balancing numbers with quality.
Thus, a policy of poor housing has led to disasters on a large scale such as Ronan Point in Newham in 1968 when part of a tower block collapsed, killing four people and injuring 17, and the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower in West Kensington in 2017 which cost the lives of 72 and injured a further 70 people. But behind those, lies a huge backlog of maintenance from using poor materials and unsupervised construction.
Personally, I do not think the Thatcher ‘right to buy’ policy was necessarily wrong in principle (shock!) but, just like the NHS land sales I was involved with, properties were sold off too cheaply just to get cash for tax cuts for the wealthy.
Moreover, I never liked the idea of public housing ‘estates’ because it can create discrimination in society that we do not need, whereas private ownership may create greater responsibility for what is personally owned.
I do recognise that there will always be the need for some public, or different forms of joint/shared ownership housing, for particular groups. Both outdated planning and land law have contributed to the present problems together with over reliance on the large-scale developer model of housing provision and their love of what is least risky and most rewarding rather than what may be needed in any particular location. In Hastings this has created too much ‘suburban’ low rise development. Planning in Hastings has been devoid of any urban design which could have produced some sustainable mixed-use neighbourhoods.
Greater imagination is needed from architects, local and national government, as well as a new profit model by housebuilders. Good design is supposed to now be of prime importance in planning but there is still no guidance on how to achieve it. Why not?
With only minor changes to national planning policy guidelines,such as some relaxation of parking standards and more communal car use, the fairly standardised developer approach to housing could be jettisoned to open up a range of smaller sites in Hastings and across the country to new housing opportunities. These include the potential for:
Earth sheltered hobbit-type houses built into the bank in Robertson Hill or at the top and bottom of White Rock Gardens (no loss of green space!).
A small block of flats built over the northside St Leonards (Warrior Square) station car park.
Allowing, subject to owners’wishes of course, development on some of the gardens backing onto London Road and Filsham Road.
Repossessing the former WW1 overgrown allotment plots behind Old London Road in Ore.
Using the unnecessarily large road verges on Churchwood Drive (between SLM and Tesco) and the one at Napier Road.
Using the unused railway land at Hastings station (several possibilities).
There are many sites across Hastings like these which could provide additional much needed and locally distinctive houses and flats. All that is lacking is the imagination and political will to do so.
Ken Davis has 50 years experience of designing and project managing a wide range of building types and sizes, including private and public housing developments and one-off houses mostly in London and the South-East.
We hope you have enjoyed reading this article. The future of our volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. You can also support local journalism by becoming a friend of HIP. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.
As always, Ken Davies makes good points, and I agree with him in regard to the sale of council housing! When he mentions the emphasis is upon housing targets (rather than the quality of the housing) I would go further – we need to focus upon the housing need. By that I mean building the homes the local community needs! Often that is an emphasis upon 1 – 2 bedroom dwellings, rather than the (more profitable) 3 -4 bedroom dwellings beloved of developers. If we are to keep our young people here and provide them with a more stable future we need to provide them with greater opportunity to get onto the housing ladder – whether by buying or renting. More 1 – 2 bedroom dwellings in the housing stock will do that – not 3 – 4 bedroom dwellings attracting London commuters and AirBnB owners!