Tory housing plans will only push up prices

by John Fitzsimons on 08 March 2010  |  28 comments
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The Tories want to put property planning power in our hands – but rather than solve our supply issues, it will push up property prices.

Fans of the classic computer game Sim City will be delighted by the ideas detailed in the Conservative Party’s new green paper, Open Source Planning – if they come to fruition, soon we will all have a very real role in exactly where housing and other buildings crop up in our neighbourhoods.

The paper calls for the stripping away of all bureaucracy surrounding the planning process, and for the power to be put into the hands of local communities to decide exactly what is built where. Local authorities will not have affordable housing targets imposed on them, as they do currently, but instead will be able to decide for themselves what is best for their local needs.

Indeed, local residents will even be able to bring forward small scale development within their area without even needing to go through the traditional planning process, so long as there is ‘strong community backing’.

What’s more, if any more than a small minority of local residents object to a planned development, the plan must then be formally assessed by the authorities before it can go ahead.

What’s the problem?

All sounds very exciting doesn’t it?

There’s an obvious problem here – The Not In My Back Yard brigade, or Nimbys as they’re more commonly known. These are the people that are happy to accept that one of the biggest problems facing the property market in the UK is the crippling lack of supply, and agree that something needs to be done, so long as it doesn’t affect their own town.

They are a big reason that house building is so far behind the targets the Government has set (though most industry experts suggested the targets were overly ambitious in the first place).

The solution

The Tories have an answer, of sorts, to the Nimby problem. They are going to bribe them.

Ok, they don’t use the word bribe, preferring to go with ‘incentivise’, but it’s the same thing really. To encourage local authorities, for each affordable housing unit that is built, the Tories will pay that authority 125% of the Council Tax raised by that home for six years.

That’s the authorities dealt with, now for the locals.

Should locals raise protests about any planning, to the point that a formal assessment by the authorities is necessary, here is what the paper suggests will happen.

“We anticipate that in many cases developers will choose to avoid the need for formal assessment of the application, and hence speed up the planning process by reaching voluntary agreements to compensate nearby householders for the impact of the development on their amenity, in return for their support.”

So basically, if a Nimby doesn’t like it, give them cash to make them go away.

To be fair, I have some sympathy for the Conservatives on this idea. Trying to impose new homes on towns clearly isn’t working (particularly if investment in the local infrastructure is not up to scratch), so trying to win the support of the locals is an obvious next step.

However, is bribery really the way to go about it? And more to the point, will it work?

What do you think?

Personally, I’m pretty sceptical that the Nimbys can be bought out in this way. It will take an awful lot of cash to turn them around, and the ‘incentives’ required may end up turning developers off particular sites.

There’s nothing wrong with giving locals a say in the way their area is developed, within reason, but for me, these plans go a bit too far.

So what do you think? Are cash incentives the way to win over the Nimbys? And is giving local communities power over housing developments the answer to the housing supply crisis? Be sure to let us know via the comment box below!

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