Kent targeted to take huge housing hit

Kent faces taking the brunt of the government’s massive proposed hike in housebuilding levels for the South East.

This month’s beginning of a national consultation into changing the planning system in a bid to boost the amount of homes being built details a total of 3,400 extra dwellings a year – a rise of 8 per cent – on current targets across the region.

Staggeringly, two-thirds of these are earmarked for Kent, a county already having to accommodate some of the highest levels of housebuilding in the country.

If the proposals are accepted, Kent’s local authorities will need to identify enough land for 2,313 more homes a year, a 24 per cent increase on plans already in place.

The government’s proposed change in methodology is laid out in the Department for Communities and Local Government document Planning For The Right Homes In The Right Places: Consultation Proposals.

It would see a 15 per cent hike in housebuilding across the country, with London seeing the greatest increase at 79 per cent, or an extra 31,994 new homes on the capital’s current figure.

Not everywhere is expected to take more housing, however. It is suggested that the North West’s housing target is cut by 23 per cent, Yorkshire and Humberside’s by 22 per cent and the West Midlands’ by 8 per cent.

It is difficult to see how this tallies with the government’s concept of a Northern Powerhouse or indeed with the idea of reducing the focus of development on what is widely accepted to be an overheated South East, but there are further baffling aspects to the proposals even within the region.

After Kent, West Sussex is earmarked for the biggest increase, with an extra 1,290 dwellings a year, followed by Hampshire, with 1,211. Two counties, however, can breathe a sigh of relief, at least for the time being, as their proposed targets are being cut.

Oxfordshire has had its figure slashed by 1,590 a year, or 32 per cent, while East Sussex sees a cut of 1,095, or 28 per cent.

Quite why Oxfordshire, for example, facing similar development and population pressures to Kent, should see such a drastic proposed reduction in its figure while Kent, if the proposals come to pass, will be expected to build more than 12,000 houses a year, is anyone’s guess, but there is surely a suspicion that our county is being offered as a sacrificial lamb while other, arguably more fashionable, parts of the region are spared the full scale of the onslaught.

CPRE Kent Director Hilary Newport said: “The existing targets were already too high, so this latest development makes for some sorry reading.

“We absolutely accept the need for more housing, but we need to have the right types of homes in the right places. However, the higher levels proposed here will merely allow housebuilders to target sites in the countryside that will not provide the affordable housing that is so desperately needed.”

The views of delighted South Oxfordshire MP John Howell, meanwhile, are illuminating: “The new methodology…  ends the tyranny of the current strategic housing market assessment. Some areas will not see a reduction [in housebuilding targets] but, to be honest, my only interest is in the Henley area and Oxfordshire.”

Here’s hoping Kent’s MPs will be similarly focused on looking after the interests of the places and people they represent.

27 September 2017

• A number of important documents have yet to emerge. For example, a rigorous transport plan and a finalised air-quality assessment. The latter is critical given that allocations at Teynham will feed extra traffic into AQMAs.
• There seems to be no coherent plan for infrastructure delivery – a key component of the plan given the allocations being proposed near the already crowded Junction 7.
• There seems to have been little or no cooperation with neighbouring boroughs or even parish councils within Swale itself.

The removal of a second consultation might have been understandable if this final version of the plan were similar to that being talked about at the beginning of the consultation process. It is, however, radically different in the following ways:

• There has been a major shift in the balance of housing allocations, away from the west of the borough over to the east, especially around the historic town of Faversham. This is a move that raises many concerns.
• A new large allocation, with accompanying A2 bypass, has appeared around Teynham and Lynsted, to which we are objecting.
• Housing allocations in the AONB around Neames Forstal that were judged “unsuitable” by the council’s own officers have now appeared as part of the housing numbers.
• Most of the housing allocations being proposed are on greenfield sites, many of them on Grade 1 agricultural land – a point to which we are strongly objecting.

Concerns about the rush to submit the plan

The haste with which the plan is being prepared is especially worrying given the concentration of housing in Faversham. If the town is to take a large amount of new housing, it is imperative that the policies concerning the area are carefully worked out to preserve, as far as possible, the unique nature of the town. The rush to submit the plan is likely to prove detrimental.

As Swale does not have a five-year land housing supply, it is open to speculative development proposals, many of which would run counter to the ideas contained in the current plan. Some are already appearing. This is a common situation, and one that, doubtless, is a reason behind Swale’s haste.

Our overriding fear, however, is that this emphasis on haste is ultimately going to prove counterproductive. This is because it is our view that the plan, in its current form, is unlikely to pass independent examination. We are urging Swale to listen to and act upon the comments being made about the plan and to return the plan to the council with appropriate modifications before submitting it to the Secretary of State.

Essentially, this means treating the current consultation not as the final one but as the ‘lost’ second consultation.

The consultation ends on Friday 30 April and we strongly urge residents to make their opinions known if they have not already done so.

Further information

• Read more on the Swale Local Plan
• Read CPRE Kent’s detailed comments on the plan
• View the council’s consultation document