Housing Targets Row
PAUL McLAUGHLIN
The simmering row between the Green-led council and the local Labour MP resurfaced this week after Hastings Borough Council (HBC) formally responded to the Government’s plans to change the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The proposed changes are designed to encourage new housing developments across the country.
Under the plans, a new national formula for calculating local housing need will be introduced, requiring all councils to set ambitious targets to build new homes. The proposals will see the annual housing target for Hastings increase from 490 to 722 houses each year.
Cllr Mark Etherington, HBC’s lead councillor for Planning, Infrastructure and Active Travel, believes the new targets are “completely out of reach.” He said Hastings could not meet its current target let alone any new ones “given that the town is built with the sea on one side and protected landscapes to the west, north and east”.
He also indicated that HBC believed any changes to the NPPF should “mandate high quality zero-carbon buildings” because at present “there is no compulsion on developers to hit zero carbon standards”. In addition, he said HBC “needed access to sufficient funding to support the delivery of new homes for social rent and further support for employment and tourism, opportunities which would allow us to deliver jobs and growth in line with new homes”.
Local Labour MP Helena Dollimore dismissed the criticism, saying “This government was elected to tackle the housing crisis with a mandate to build the homes our community desperately needs, including the biggest expansion of social housing in a generation. It is not a zero-sum game between building the homes we need and protecting the environment; our town is full of brownfield sites that could be homes for local people but have been sitting derelict.”
She also insisted that “golden rules will apply to ensure we build the homes and local infrastructure (including sewage pipes) and public services that we need while protecting the environment.” She said she was proud that the Labour government “is getting on with this vital work as well as banning Section 21 no-fault evictions to affirm renters’ rights – something the Conservatives avoided doing for 14 years in power.”
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HBC’s Green-led government is on a hiding to nothing. They want to build new homes but cannot match the old target – let alone the new one set by (Labour) Central Government. The confines and existing development of the Borough constrain any further development. In the area of West St Leonards we have 7 possible brownfield sites, but there suitability is questionable, at best. One is owned by the MoD, who have made no attempt to link its development to maximising housing development; three suffer the threat of landslips; one is ideal for housing development but hosts out-of-sync retail units; one involves the protected South Saxons and floods; and that brings us to the last one, the only remaining sea-adjoining land in the Borough (with considerable construction challenges) that could host leisure/tourism-focused development to improve the Borough’s poor tourist appeal.
I feel sure similar problems exist elsewhere in the Borough, so no artificial targets and financial threats are going to provide the necessary homes. What is needed is a UK-wide approach to build where it is feasible, and where the infrastructure can support the homes. I would also suggest that until developers are restricted from focusing upon luxury dwellings (suited to being second homes or attractive AirBnBs), and instead redirected to maximising the use of sites for much-needed 1-2 bedroom dwellings, we will continue to waste opportunities!